Unless someone does autopsies of wild pheasant that died of natural causes there is no way to know if West Nile is a problem or not.
It may be that the survival rate of pheasant infected with West Nile is 5% and that the other 95% die. You would not be able to tell by the percentage of those taken by hunters that have West Nile antibodies. And it could be the other way too - that the survival rate is 95% and only 5% die.
I read Dale Rollins' website and I read his newsletters. Many are about the epidemiology of quail. He has gathered bobwhite (shot by hunters and donated to him) and tested them for eye worms, stomach worms, and West Nile virus. I suppose he is building a base line for comparison. But so far there is no smoking gun in the sudden bob white decline experienced three(?) seasons ago in Texas.
As it seems impossible to gather all the wild birds that died of natural causes for autopsy it seems impossible to determine if an epidemic occurred and which disease(s) were the cause of that epidemic.
I don't believe anyone knows if it was West Nile, or not.
Last edited by AmarilloMike; 10/21/13 09:37 AM.
