Eyeworms have been found in 60 percent of bobwhite quail in the Rolling Plains, and cecal worms have been discovered in 90 percent of the birds. A new medicated feed, QuailGuard, shows potential for improving the birds’ health. (RPQRF)

There is no greater concern about a game species in Texas than for bobwhite quail.

There was a time when the excitement around quail season nearly rivaled deer season. Braces of bird dogs were common in backyards around the state. Quail leases, at least good ones, were more expensive than deer leases. Many ranches were leased to one group for deer hunting and another for quail, with deer hunting being shut down early so the bird hunters could move in.

It was that way until the 1980s, and then things began to change. Quail numbers had always had brief ups and downs depending on rainfall from year to year, but in the 80s the downs started to become longer and the rebounds were not as robust.

After a while they became the norm, and as the old hunters began to retire or die, new hunters were not replacing them because there was not any momentum to entice them.

Year after year of low populations meant only the old surviving quail were around to replenish the population, yet they are not the most productive. That meant bad years were followed by better years, but not booms, and then the busts would come again.

There is no question that rainfall is significant to bobwhite quail production, as is loss of habitat, but hunters and researchers around the state began to wonder if there was not more.

Funded by the ardent hunters who remained, universities like Texas Tech and Texas A&M developed quail research programs to see if anything else might be limiting quail production.

Then quail-specific organizations, most specifically Park Cities Quail Coalition and Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation, stepped in to fund studies and a potential solution.

“Basically, they have looked at all the factors that have led to the mysterious decline of bobwhite quail. Yes, it is the loss of habitat and it is rain related, that is true, but we wanted to know if there were other factors,” explained Joe Crafton of Dallas, an avid hunter and a founder of Park Cities Quail.

Crafton, who owns a 6,000-acre Rolling Plain ranch along with hunter, dog trainer and conservationist Rick Snipes, said studies also looked at other factors like wild turkey, pigs, predators like raccoons and skunks, raptors such as hawks, avian flu and aflatoxin, a fatal disease in birds caused by spoiled corn.

RPQRF honed in on parasites and more specifically eyeworms and cecal worms in the stomach.

“It most likely is parasites. They had been documented in the 1950s, but what they called for in the 50s was more study to determine the effects of parasites,” Crafton said.

That did not happen until about a decade ago when hunter-supported efforts began to pour money into it. To date almost $8 million.

It was discovered that cecal worms were present in almost 90% of the birds sampled, and about 60% suffered from eyeworms. Cecal worms are common in quail statewide, however, the eyeworm issue seems to be localized to the Rolling Plains region.

That is important because the Rolling Plains was once the state’s premier bobwhite hunting destination, but in recent years it has been overtaken by South Texas because that portion of the state has had more consistent and higher bird numbers.

After working out which parasites were the most prevalent the project looked to Dr. Ron Kendall, professor of Environmental Toxicology, Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory at Texas Tech University, for a solution. Kendall’s team found it in the form of Fenbendazole, a commonly use medication to treat parasites in farm-raised fowl.

“It was tested on three ranches. The good news is it treats the parasites, but it doesn’t hurt the quail, it doesn’t hurt those who eat the quail and it doesn’t hurt non-targeted species,” Crafton explained.

After six years of testing, including determining a medium to deliver the medication and feeding schedule, the treatment has received FDA approval and will soon be on the market. With added vitamins and minerals, the feed will be under the name QuailGuard.

Crafton and Snipes ranch was one of the test sites.

“Compared to our neighbors, and most of them have good habitat, we found 10 coveys last year where the others were finding three,” Crafton said.

He added that while hunting he also checks each bird for eyeworms and over the years the incidence of finding them has declined from 70% to 10%.

Based on studies that showed quail would travel about 300 yards to feed, they put out a quail-specific feeder per 100 acres, and used 50 pounds of medicated feed per feeder twice a year.

“Once in the spring and once in the fall cleans them up,” Crafton said.

The feeding regimen comes at important times in the birds’ lifecycle as they pull off broods in the spring and then prepare for the winter stress period.

While the feed does not kill all parasitic worms, Crafton said quail can live with a certain number of worms.

“This is something that can be done. We can’t control the weather. We can’t control ranchers from planting non-native grasses. We can’t control urban sprawl,” Crafton said.

He added there is precedence for a medicate feed for wild birds. Scotland overcame an outbreak of hookworms and ringworms in wild grouse using medicated feed.

This is also the second FDA approved medicated feed for wildlife in the U.S. The other has been for Rocky Mountain sheep.

The decline of bobwhite quail is not just a Texas issue. According to Audubon the population nationwide has declined from 31 million in 1967 to 5.5 million today.

Crafton said the feed is expected to cost about a dollar a pound, and importantly 63% of the profits from the feed are earmarked to go back into quail research through Park Cities Quail Coalition.

For more information on the feed and how to order it, go online to www.quailguard.com.