[Avodah] Fw: [Areivim] kashrus of milk

[SBA]

From: "Micha Berger" <>
 RSBA wrote:
: Actually, AFAIK the Cholov Yisroel farms check out the cows to
: ensure that they are not treif.
===
I do not believe this is true. My understanding is that we rely on
rov. (Qasheh levareir, as argued on Avodah.)
I also do not believe we would be able to afford the resulting milk,
if we had to be that careful of our herds.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>From KCA an Oz Kosher consumer list:

The Status of milk In Australia & NZ

In general there is an issue associated with the milking of cows - and that
is the concern that the cow may be "treif" ie it may have an injury that
renders it not kosher and subsequently its milk is not kosher. When milking
individual cows one could normally employ the rule that "anything that
separates, separates from the majority " and as such the cow before you can
be assumed to be from the majority of kosher cows. This would be the case if
I took that individual pail of milk home.

Today however all the milk is mixed together at the dairies, and we are not
just dealing with maybes but certainties as we will see - and as such we
need there to be sixty times as many "kosher cows" as potentially "treif"
cows.

One of the conditions which require surgical procedure on a cow is something
called a "displaced abomasum" or DA for short. This occurs when there is a
build up of gas that forces the abomasum ( one of the cow's stomachs) to be
pushed out of position which causes great discomfort to the cow and is
potentially life threatening. In order to correct this an incision is made
through the stomach wall and the abomasum is pulled back into position and
sewed in place. According to most opinions this surgery renders the animal a
"treifah" as it perforates the stomach. (There is a minority view that
medical surgery does not cause treifot. I seem to remember indeed something
from Rav Shechter on this but I may be wrong). As such were an animal to
have had a DA then according to most opinions its milk would be not kosher.

In many countries where feed lots are used rather than natural grass, DA is
a very common occurrence. If in a particular herd to be milked there would
be more than one cow per sixty this would involve serious shaalot. This is
quite a common occurrence overseas and as such the issue raised at the
European conference and another reason to drink CY (where the herds are
usually checked).

In Australia and NZ however this problem is very rare. In NZ - with its
wonderful lush green grass (best place in the world to be a cow)- the
problem is non-existent. In Australia , due to the drought and the
introduction of feed lots, it is beginning to appear - but IMHO not in
amounts that pose as yet a problem.

As a matter of course , when the KA makes Cholov Yisroel milk we ensure that
both DA's and Caeser's (another surgery rendering the cow treif)are not in
the herd.

Moshe D Gutnick
Rabbi