Is West Nile Virus hitting the ruffed grouse populations hard?

[Brutus]

On the properties I hunt people are starting to self impose bans on them unless we see an up cycle. They're supposed to live 7-8 years, and we know the local populations are down so it seems counter productive to kill the 1 or 2 a year we see.

Landowners north east Alberta are doing much the same. In the Lakeland there's a small region of higher ground that will remain nameless. Ruffed grouse numbers there are much higher from what homeowners and farmers tell me. The side benefit they shoot any hungry coyotes thereabouts.
The ruffies need to recover somehow.