control group to see if the virus would pass directly from bird-to-bird without the presence of mosquitoes. Blood was drawn daily to look for WNV presence and levels of WNV antibodies. ANALYZING THE RESULTS None of the vaccinated birds and none of the contact-control birds sickened. But within eight days, four of the 10 birds inoculated with the virus were extremely ill. The other six birds survived to the end of the two-week project. All were autopsied to see if WNV had affected them. Four of these survivors had severe lesions that damaged their hearts, brains and other vital organs. In total, eight of the 10 birds had organ damage severe enough to make their long-term survival in the wild uncertain. After many months and many miles, our critical questions had been answered: WNV clearly kills ruffed grouse; and as many as 80 percent of ruffed grouse exposed to WNV are killed outright or might have reduced survival. Once again, grouse hunters demonstrated their passion. It is amazing to me that hunters were willing to call in their dogs, halt their hunts, and collect fresh blood samples! In all, 204 filter strips were returned by hunters from 31 counties. We found that 13 percent of harvested grouse were positive for WNV antibodies. This represents both good and bad news: Our wild grouse are being impacted HUNTERS HELP We answered our questions using standard wildlife-disease protocols in a laboratory setting. But we also wanted to understand WNV impacts on wild grouse. In autumn of 2015, I mailed more than 600 specialized "blood kits" to our grouse cooperators and Ruffed Grouse Society members to gather WNV information from hunter-harvested grouse. Each kit included instructions and a filter-paper strip to be soaked in the fresh blood of a harvested bird. Nicole Nemeth pauses before inoculating a grouse chick at Colorado State University. SEPTEMBER 2016 7