In a rare step, in cooperation, the heads of the largest and leading kashrut systems in Israel came together and came to meet with the Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel, in his office in Beit Dagan.
The meeting was attended by Rabbis Rabbi Yisrael Fishbein - Av Beit Din of Badatz Communities, Rabbi Chaim Pesach Horwitz - member of Badatz Makizkei Hadatz, Rabbi Avraham Rubin - Av Beit Din of Badatz Mehadrin, Rabbi Shevach Rosenblatt Shlita - member of Badatz She'erit Yisrael. Also present at the meeting were Rabbi Hananel Yaffei, represented by Rabbi Moshe Yosef - Av Beit Din of Badatz Beit Yosef, and Rabbi Shmuel Yosef Shtitzberg, who coordinates the forum's activities. On the part of the Ministry of Agriculture, the meeting was attended by, in addition to the Minister, the professional team responsible for poultry vaccinations, including Ram Katz - the Chief Physician at the Ministry of Agriculture, Shlomo Gerz and Nathan Natanson, advisors to veterinary services, and the professional team of the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
The meeting highlighted that the rabbis who went to the trouble of coming to meet on the issue of poultry slaughter in Israel actually represent the vast majority of the ultra-Orthodox public that strictly observes kashrut, and the kashrut systems responsible for slaughtering over 200,000 poultry every day.
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At the meeting, the rabbis raised the situation that has plagued the kashrut systems for many years: the vaccines given to birds in the first few days after they hatch from the egg. These vaccines are given to immunize the birds against diseases and epidemics found in the poultry industry.
However, there are several forms of vaccination, such as giving the substance in a drink, fogging the area of the coop, eye drops, and more. In Israel, veterinarians prefer to administer the vaccine in the form of an injection. Since the injection is given to the bird while it is tiny, any movement of the needle can pose a problem with the kosherness of the chicken - if not done under the close supervision of supervisors.
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The meeting reviewed the various options for the different places on the chicken's body where it is customary to perform the vaccination, and it was clarified that most strictly kosher systems perform the vaccination in the chicken's breast, which turned out, after much investigation, to be the most effective method to prevent any fear of predation.
This method is performed after inserting a very short needle into the thick part located in the center of the chest [known as the schnitzel part], and also holding the needle at a slant, to prevent the needle from penetrating the body cavity - then there may be a concern about damage to the internal organs. Today, kashrut systems invest effort to eliminate this concern, with special supervisors present during the vaccination, ensuring that the injection is at a slant, and also checking the length of the needle, to ensure that there are no concerns about kashrut.
But reality proves that there have been times when supervisors have found that warehouses did not do their job properly, and have been forced to reject entire chickens from slaughter, a step that has caused financial losses for farmers and everyone involved. According to sources in the kashrut systems, there have also been several times when warehouses have begun injecting without supervision, which has resulted in the disqualification of farms and losses for farmers.
In a conversation between officials in the kosher system whose representative participated in the meeting with Haredim 10, they say that the professional team at the Ministry of Agriculture was impressed that, in addition to the fact that the cancellation of the injection provision would raise the level of kashrut, it would also result in lower costs for poultry consumers, because today, financial losses of hundreds of thousands of shekels are incurred periodically as a result of the injections, and the cost ultimately falls on the shoulders of the consumer without any justification - which increases the need to seek alternatives to vaccinating poultry, in order to lower costs in poultry prices.
The rabbis noted at the meeting that while in Israel the authorities insist on administering the vaccinations through injection, in the US and many European countries, there is no such requirement, and poultry farmers are permitted to administer the vaccinations through other alternatives that do not raise kosher concerns.
The Minister of Agriculture and his team made it clear to the rabbis that they are making every effort to examine other vaccination options, and clarified that they will embark on a special pilot, in collaboration with the leading Badatzim forum - of injection-free chicken coops, to find an alternative that will meet kashrut requirements, and on the other hand will meet safety rules, and avoid the fear of diseases and epidemics that may break out in poultry coops.
""There is hope that in the near future, it will be possible to vaccinate the birds in a way that does not raise kosher concerns," they say in the Badazim forum.
