Spring Incidence of Ruffed Grouse Blood Parasites

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Abstract
Blood smears taken in the spring and fall in northern Wisconsin from ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), a gallinaceous game bird, showed that the blood parasites Haemoproteus, Leucocytozoon, Trypanosoma, and microfilaria increased strikingly in spring. This spring increase coincides with production of young chicks, thereby providing ideal epizootiological conditions for transferring the infections from adult to young.