How Often Do Animals Get STDs?

Most of the animal kingdom never practices safe sex, and they have the battle scars to prove it.

By Melissa Lafsky
Sep 9, 2008 5:00 AMApr 27, 2020 2:23 AM
Guanacos in Patagonia, Animal Sex - Shutterstock
(Credit: sunsinger/Shutterstock)

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Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on the rise in the U.S., to the point where even senior citizens are seeing upswings in infections. But STDs also occur throughout the animal kingdom, in species from mammals to insects to birds. And recent progress on a chlamydia vaccine for koalas may even lead to breakthroughs in vaccinating humans against sexually transmited infections.

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