After more than a decade of research, applications and years of waiting, a drug integrated into medicated feed to control parasites in wild quail has been approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA concluded the drug integrated into a medicated feed is both safe and effective in controlling parasites in wild quail in their natural habitat. For instance, eyeworm parasite infection levels in the Rolling Plains region of West Texas have been documented at over 60 percent and cecal worms have been documented at up to 90-percent levels throughout Texas.
The medicated feed crumble integrating the anthelmintic drug will be known as the new retail product “QuailGuard.” In labeling instructions, the FDA recommends that the medicated feed be in the form of a crumble and not generally broadcast but offered through strategic feeding stations and/ or appropriate feeders.
QuailGuard is a field-tested medicated feed crumble made from a proprietary blend of grains, minerals, vitamins and amino acids combined with the active drug ingredient, Fenbendazole. Quail- Guard has been proven to be both palatable and effective throughout the FDA registration process.
Based on field research, the recommended application is for QuailGuard to be distributed with strategic feeders for a 21-day period in the spring and a 21-day period in the fall. Using a 50-pound bag per application and one feeder per 200 acres, Quail-Guard will cost approximately $0.50 per acre for treatment once a feeding strategy has been set up.
An example of strategic feeding stations employing Quail Safe technology has proven to be effective in treating wild quail for parasites in multiple FDA-approved demonstration sites.
The approval follows nine years of research and application in coordination with the FDA by Dr. Ron Kendall, Ph.D., Professor of Environmental Toxicology, Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory at Texas Tech University. Funding for the research was primarily provided by Park Cities Quail Coalition and the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation. The funds were raised by sportsmen concerned about the declining huntable populations of wild quail in Texas and beyond.
The parasite research was initiated in 2009 by the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch’s “Operation Idiopathic Decline.” RPQRF has identified three sites in the Rolling Plains for additional research evaluating population responses of bobwhites at large-scale implementation and testing of the new feed.
QuailGuard, LLC is a joint venture between PCQC and Dr. Kendall. The majority of royalties from the sale of QuailGuard will go to PCQC and be spent on quail research and education in Texas. QuailGuard, LLC has no paid employees. Joe Crafton volunteers as president.
“This was a monumental project involving over a decade of research and ultimately involving dozens of highly credentialed professionals and has resulted in the publication of 44 scientific research papers so far. I am a quail hunter myself and feel passionately that QuailGuard will contribute to quail conservation and sustainability efforts,” said Dr. Kendall.
“Of course, habitat and weather are the most important factors,” Crafton said. “However, eyeworms and cecal worms on quail have reached pandemic levels in parts of Texas and this is the first solution to this significant factor in quail decline. This is another sportsman-led conservation success story and only the second wild animal ever approved by the FDA to be treated in their natural habitat with a medicated feed product.”
