Thread by @PiedmontRefuge

Hey friends. We’re coming to you today with some somber news. A commercial flock of turkeys in Johnston County, NC has tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). This location is ~ an hour away from the Refuge and HPAI is highly fatal to domesticated birds.

In response, we have been forced to make the unfortunate decision to keep all of our birds indoors until the threat of ceases. We've also implemented many biosecurity protocols. In order to provide the best quality of life to our birds, we have been making adjustments such as:

-shifting some birds around to create more indoor space for each flock
-implementing daily cleaning of all bird houses
-providing evening snacks of rotating fruit and vegetables (in addition to maintaining our morning enrichment program)

Things are really stressful for both our bird residents and our animal caregivers. The emotional toll is overwhelming and we are trying our best to do everything in our power to keep our chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese as comfortable and happy as possible.

There are several things that you can do right now to help our birds here at the Refuge:

1️⃣ Retweet!
2️⃣ Sponsor a bird resident (piedmontrefuge.org/sponsorship/)
3️⃣ Join us on PATREON ( patreon.com/piedmontrefuge )
4️⃣ Check out our Amazon Wishlist

5️⃣ Sign up as an Animal House Cleaning volunteer! Not only are our expenses significantly higher, but our animal care and cleaning duties have increased substantially. If you’ve ever thought about volunteering, now is an amazing time to begin!

We appreciate all of your love and support! It means more to us now than ever. As we adjust to these changes we hope you will keep our birds in your thoughts 💕 #avianflu #hpai