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Towards a Healthier Future: Koala Health Diagnostics Through Scat Microbiome
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  • Alejandro Oliveros Sandino,
  • Nicola Jackson,
  • Daniel Powell,
  • Julien Terraube,
  • Flavia Santamaria,
  • Ludovica Valenza,
  • Rosemary Booth,
  • Celine Frere
Alejandro Oliveros Sandino
The University of Queensland - Saint Lucia Campus
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Nicola Jackson
The University of Queensland - Saint Lucia Campus
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Daniel Powell
University of the Sunshine Coast School of Science Technology and Engineering
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Julien Terraube
University of the Sunshine Coast
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Flavia Santamaria
Central Queensland University
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Ludovica Valenza
Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital
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Rosemary Booth
Turner Family Foundation
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Celine Frere
The University of Queensland

Corresponding Author:c.frere@uq.edu.au

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Abstract

Conservation biology requires accurate data on how human-induced threats affect wildlife fitness and survival. Gut microbiota play a critical role in health by influencing physiology, nutrition, immunology, and behaviour. Advances in non-invasive sampling, particularly scat microbiome analysis, offer scalable conservation solutions. This study establishes a benchmark using basic machine learning algorithms (SVM, Ranger, glmnet, and xgboost) to predict health outcomes in koalas from non-invasive scat microbiome data. Scat samples from 125 koalas were analysed using 16S PacBio HiFi sequencing. By incorporating a phylogenetic approach and integrating additional metrics such as sex, age, and stress metabolites, which can potentially be acquired non-invasively, we achieved high accuracy in predicting key health outcomes, including body condition score (BCS), disease status, survival outcome, and weight. The algorithms achieved a minimum accuracy of 68% and a maximum accuracy of 84%. By establishing this benchmark, we set the stage for future research to utilize wildlife hospital infrastructure for larger sample collection and advanced machine learning, with the ultimate goal of developing a predictive health diagnostics tool for wildlife.