Hello Everyone, Today was an introduction to the laws of treifot. We saw that the realities of poultry farming have changed during the past 50 years. Whereas throughout Jewish history there was an assumption that chickens are treifah-free this may no longer be the case (at least according to some authorities). Today chickens are raised in crowded coops where they have very little room to move , they receive vaccinations during the “chick” stage of their growth, and they are exposed to viruses that apparently did not affect the chickens of our granparents’ (or perhaps even our parents’ ) time. Because of these changes many authorities claim that we can no longer ignore the possibility of treifot in poultry.I hope you enjoed today’s shiur. I realize that these shiurim will introduce many of you to a new vocabulary. I will try to make myself as clear as possible. Please feel free to ask questions both during the shiurim and afterwards via e-mail. Thank-you, Stuart Fischman