[Avodah] Beware: Glatt May Not Always Mean Kosher

[Prof. Levine]

At the request of a moderator I am transferring this discussion to Avodah.

At 09:47 AM 7/9/2008, Aryeh Stein wrote on Areivim:
>While, according to the Star-K, every chicken in the United States
>must be glatt in order to be considered kosher, this does not hold
>true in Israel:
>
> >>>In Israel, the lungs of the chickens are 
> checked due to the prevalence of Newcastle 
> Disease.  Indeed, there are two types of 
> chicken that are sold in Israel ­ Mehadrin and 
> non-Mehadrin.  Mehadrin chickens, whose lungs 
> are checked, are considered glatt while the 
> non-Mehadrin chickens would only be considered regular non-glatt.>>>
>
>(from the same URL posted above)
>
>Just wanted to clarify this....
>
>KT,
>Aryeh

I replied on Areivim,

For information on what Newcastle Disease is, see 
http://tinyurl.com/6enk2y and 
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct99/front1099.htm

After thinking about this a bit, I then sent the 
following to Areivim, which is now redirected to Avodah.

At  http://tinyurl.com/6enk2y  it says

What are the symptoms?
The severity of the clinical signs is influenced 
by the strain of virus and the age, condition and 
species of the bird. Clinical signs in poultry 
range from a mild, almost inapparent respiratory 
disease to a very severe depression, drop in egg 
production, increased respiration, profuse 
diarrhea followed by collapse, or long-term 
nervous signs (such as twisted necks) if the 
birds survive. Death rate can be up to 100 per 
cent in severe forms of the disease. The 
incubation period is usually 5–6 days, but can vary from 2–15 days.

These is absolutely no mention of the lungs of 
the bird on this web site. My understanding is 
that saying an animal is Glatt kosher means that 
its lungs where found to be entirely free of all 
adhesions. ("For Ashkenazim, there is a tradition 
that a small, easily removable adhesion is 
defined as a lower class of adhesion, known as 
rir, and that the presence of up to two such 
small, easily removable adhesions still qualifies 
the animal as glatt according to Ashkenazic 
tradition."  http://www.kashrut.com/articles/glatt/ )

Thus, I fail to understand the statement on the 
Star-K web site, "Mehadrin chickens, whose lungs 
are checked, are considered glatt while the 
non-Mehadrin chickens would only be considered 
regular non-glatt." Israeli chickens whose lungs 
were checked may be called Mehadrin, but why call 
them Glatt?  Is this yet another misuse of the word Glatt?

I admit up front that I know virtually nothing 
about the lungs of either animals or fowl.


Yitzchok Levine 
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