Dr Higgins is director of the Koala Health Hub which will provide koala carers with better access to tests and expertise.
Koalas throughout NSW and potentially nationwide will benefit from the establishment of the Koala Health Hub at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Veterinary Science. The funding of $400,000 for the Hub is money contributed by members of the public in the 1980s, including bags of five cent coins from thousands of school children. "The Koala Health Hub is dedicated to supporting koala hospitals, veterinarians and researchers working to improve koala health and welfare, including the 950 sick or injured koalas hospitalised in NSW each year," said hub director Dr Damien Higgins from the University's Faculty of Veterinary Science. The Koala Infectious Diseases Research Group and the Wildlife Health and Conservation Clinic in the Faculty of Veterinary Science have over 40 years of combined expertise in koala health and disease. Their investigations into the diagnosis and treatment of infectious koala diseases that can cause respiratory and neurological disease, blindness, infertility and death, as well as management of burns and trauma, have created new knowledge and diagnostic methods. "The Koala Health Hub brings the results of this research to the organisations and hospitals that care for koalas, supporting them with better access to quality diagnostic tests and clinical expertise," said Dr Higgins. The funding will also directly support continuing specialist clinical care for koalas from the Sydney region at the University's University's Wildlife, Avian, Reptile and Exotic Pets Hospital at Camden.
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