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A red meat allergy from tick bites is spreading – and the lone star tick isn’t the only alpha-gal carrier to worry about
The Conversation ^ | August 05, 2025 | Lee Rafuse Haines

Posted on 08/05/2025 1:04:09 PM PDT by Red Badger

Hours after savoring that perfectly grilled steak on a beautiful summer evening, your body turns traitor, declaring war on the very meal you just enjoyed. You begin to feel excruciating itchiness, pain or even swelling that can escalate to the point of requiring emergency care.

The culprit isn’t food poisoning – it’s the fallout from a tick bite you may have gotten months earlier and didn’t even notice.

This delayed allergic reaction is called alpha-gal syndrome. While it’s commonly called the “red meat allergy,” that nickname is misleading, because alpha-gal syndrome can cause strong reactions to many products, beyond just red meat.

The syndrome is also rapidly spreading in the U.S. and around the globe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates as many as 450,000 people in the U.S. may have it. And it’s carried by many more tick species than most people realize.

Cases of suspected alpha-gal syndrome based on confirmed laboratory evidence. CDC

What is alpha-gal syndrome?

Alpha-gal syndrome is actually an allergy to a sugar molecule with a tongue-twisting name: galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose, shortened to alpha-gal.

The alpha-gal sugar molecule exists in the tissues of most mammals, including cows, pigs, deer and rabbits. But it’s absent in humans. When a big dose of alpha-gal gets into your bloodstream through a tick bite, it can send your immune system into overdrive to generate antibodies against alpha-gal. In later exposure to foods containing alpha-gal, your immune system might then launch an inappropriate allergic response.

A lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) found near Aden, Va. The tick can cause alpha-gal syndrome as well as carry other diseases, including ehrlichiosis, tularemia and Southern tick-associated rash illness. Judy Gallagher via Wikimedia, CC BY

Often this allergy is triggered by eating red meat. But the allergy also can be set off by exposure to a range of other animal-based products, including dairy products, gelatin (think Jell-O or gummy bears), medications and even some personal care items. The drug heparin, used to prevent blood clotting during surgery, is extracted from pig intestines, and its use has triggered a dangerous reaction in some people with alpha-gal syndrome.

Once you have alpha-gal syndrome, it’s possible to get over the allergy if you can modify your diet enough to avoid triggering another reaction for a few years and also avoid more tick bites. But that takes time and careful attention to the less obvious triggers that you might be exposed to.

Why more people are being diagnosed

As an entomologist who studies bugs and the diseases they transmit, what I find alarming is how rapidly this allergy is spreading around the globe.

Several years ago, experts thought alpha-gal syndrome was primarily limited to the southeastern U.S. because it was largely associated with the geographical range of the lone star tick.

How a tick feeds. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

However, both local and global reports have now identified many different tick species across six continents that are capable of causing alpha-gal syndrome, including the prolific black-legged tick, or deer tick, which also transmits Lyme disease.

These ticks lurk in yards and urban parks, as well as forests where they can stealthily grab onto hikers when they touch tick-infested vegetation. As tick populations boom with growing deer and human populations, the number of people with alpha-gal syndrome is escalating.

Why ticks are blamed for alpha-gal syndrome

There are a few theories on how a tick bite triggers alpha-gal syndrome and why only a small proportion of people bitten develop the allergy. To understand the theories, it helps to understand what happens as a tick starts feeding on you.

When a tick finds you, it typically looks for a warm, dark area to hide and attach itself to your body. Then its serrated teeth chew through your skin with rapid sawing motions.

As it excavates deeper into your skin, the tick deploys a barbed feeding tube, like a miniature drilling rig, and it secretes a biological cement that anchors its head into its new tunnel.

A tick’s mouth is barbed so it can stay embedded in your skin as it draws blood over hours and sometimes days. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

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Once secure, the tick activates its pumping station, injecting copious amounts of saliva containing anesthetics, blood thinners and, sometimes, alpha-gal sugars into the wound so it can feed undetected, sometimes for days.

One theory about how a tick bite causes alpha-gal syndrome is linked to the enormous quantity of tick saliva released during feeding, which activates the body’s strong immune response. Another suggests how the skin is damaged as the tick feeds and the possible effect of the tick’s regurgitated stomach contents into the bite site are to blame. Or it may be a combination of these and other triggers. Scientists are still investigating the causes.

What an allergic reaction feels like

The allergy doesn’t begin right away. Typically, one to three months after the sensitizing tick bite, a person with alpha-gal syndrome has their first, disturbing reaction.

Alpha-gal syndrome produces symptoms that range from hives or swelling to crushing abdominal pain, violent nausea or even life-threatening anaphylactic shock. The symptoms usually start two to six hours after a person has ingested a meat product containing alpha-gal.

Due to a general lack of awareness about the allergy, however, doctors can easily miss the diagnosis. A study in 2022 found that 42% of U.S. health care practitioners had never heard of alpha-gal syndrome. A decade ago, people with alpha-gal syndrome might go years before the cause of their symptoms was accurately diagnosed. Today, the diagnosis is faster in areas where doctors are familiar with the syndrome, but in many parts of the country it can still take time and multiple doctor visits.

Unfortunately, with every additional tick bite or exposure to food or products containing alpha-gal, the allergy can increase in severity.

The lone star tick isn’t the only one that can cause alpha-gal syndrome. Black-legged ticks have also been connected to cases. U.S. Army

If you think you have alpha-gal syndrome

If you suspect you may have alpha-gal syndrome, the first step is to discuss the possibility with your doctor and ask them to order a simple blood test to measure whether your immune system is reacting to alpha-gal.

If you test positive, the main strategy for managing the allergy is to avoid eating any food product from a mammal, including milk and cheese, as well as other potential triggers, such as more tick bites.

Read labels carefully. Some products contain additives such as carrageenan, which is derived from red algae and contains alpha-gal.

In extreme cases, people with alpha-gal syndrome may need to carry an EpiPen to prevent anaphylactic shock. Reputable websites, such as the CDC and alphagalinformation.org, can provide more information and advice.

Mysteries remain as alpha-gal syndrome spreads

Since alpha-gal syndrome was first formally documented in the early 2000s, scientists have made progress in understanding this puzzling condition. Researchers have connected the allergy to specific tick bites and found that people with the allergy can have a higher risk of heart disease, even without allergy symptoms.

But important mysteries remain.

Scientists are still figuring out exactly how the tick bite tricks the human immune system and why tick saliva is a trigger for only some people. With growing public interest in alpha-gal syndrome, the next decade could bring breakthroughs in preventing, diagnosing and treating this condition.

For now, the next time you are strolling in the woods or in long grasses, remember to check for ticks on your body, wear long sleeves, long pants and tick repellent to protect yourself from these bloodthirsty hitchhikers. If you do get bitten by a tick, watch out for odd allergic symptoms to appear a few hours after your next steak or handful of gummy bears.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Health/Medicine; Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: alphagal; beef; lonestarticks; outdoors; pets; redmeat; redmeatallergy; statesmap; tickbites; ticks
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To: Red Badger

Lone star ticks are huge, as big as bottle caps. And they have big teeth. Don’t mess with Texas ticks.


21 posted on 08/05/2025 3:55:42 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: GenXPolymath

Rumor has it ostrich is safe for people with alpha-gal and I’ve had it and you would not know it was not beef.


22 posted on 08/05/2025 3:56:50 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: GenXPolymath

We also use Sawyers permethrin spray.


23 posted on 08/05/2025 3:57:35 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: redangus

I’ve heard that Lyme was genetically engineered.

I thought I’ve heard that alph-gal might also be.


24 posted on 08/05/2025 4:00:17 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: Swirl

I’ve heard Guinea Hens do too, but are very raucous.


25 posted on 08/05/2025 4:01:15 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: Retrofitted

Try ostrich.


26 posted on 08/05/2025 4:02:11 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: jerod

Apparently the Lone Star ticks causing alpha-gal are not the same are the deer ticks causing Lyme.

Lyme takes a minimum of 24 hours of being embedded to be able to even begin to transmit it.

My understanding is that one bite from the LST is enough to sensitize someone.


27 posted on 08/05/2025 4:04:15 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: jerod

We live in tick country (NH) and do a tick check every single evening if we’ve been outside that day.

If they’re not embedded the most sure way of removing them from the gene pool is a piece of scotch tape. Put it on their back and they stick to it, wiggling their little legs helplessly in the air (love it), and I fold the tape over, seal it together around the edges, and toss it in the trash. They cannot get out of the sealed up tape.

Even the ones we pull off get the tape treatment, but we put them there.


28 posted on 08/05/2025 4:08:29 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: Red Badger

...swears I dindu nuffin’ ... I likes red meat too ...


29 posted on 08/05/2025 4:22:18 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy.)
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To: dragnet2

>> Don’t mess with Texas ticks.

Y’all got THAT right, boy. 🤠


30 posted on 08/05/2025 4:24:12 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy.)
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To: Red Badger

I think I’m just going to stay right here in Alaska. At least I can see moose and bears from a distance.


31 posted on 08/05/2025 5:08:44 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (There are three kinds of rats: Rats, Damned Rats, and DemocRats.)
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To: metmom

Yep, ger the concentrated stuff, mix it up, and save a lot of money. Spray outside clothing (clothing used for hiking, fishing, walking etc) and it lasts for several washings. Don’t need to slather on skin, just do pants, socks maybe, but t definitely shoes, overcoat or overshirt. A bittke,of,concentrate lasts a long g time. MIx it 1 to 10 ratio.


32 posted on 08/05/2025 5:14:01 PM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Red Badger

Well, I’m never eating again. Thanks for saving me. Oh wait...


33 posted on 08/05/2025 5:18:51 PM PDT by Bullish (My tagline ran off with another man, but it's ok---- I wasn't married to it.)
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To: metmom

[[Lyme takes a minimum of 24 hours of being embedded to be able to even begin to transmit it.]]

I think that has changed. Happens in less than 16 hours they say (if the ticks had recdntly fed on other animals before boting human- the bacteria need time to migrate to mouth parts of tick when they feed on blood, so if they have recently fed, the process has a,ready begun) . And now they say that even the young ticks transmit- the young being so small you can’t see them really.

Ticks are nasty vile creatures.


34 posted on 08/05/2025 5:21:28 PM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: metmom

Did the same with fleas. Works great.


35 posted on 08/05/2025 5:27:01 PM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (⭐⭐To the Left, The Truth is Right Wing Violence⭐⭐)
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To: Bob434

I always dress in two layers and treat the outside layer. Keeps the permethrin off our skin.

Mr mm had a treated shirt and I found a tick on his back that was dead, and I have found dead ticks on my cruddy sweatpants even a couple weeks after them having been treated. I also tuck in my underlayer into the tops of my socks and they tuck the sweatpants into the tops of my treated boots. I have noticed ticks have a very decided preference for climbing up.

And we still do tick checks after being outside.


36 posted on 08/05/2025 5:51:29 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: Bob434

Interesting because I just heard that they’re now saying it takes closer to 36 hours.

Also, the nymphs are only infected 25% of the time where adults are 50%, but the nymphs transmit more Lyme because they are far harder to see so aren’t removed as often.


37 posted on 08/05/2025 5:54:08 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: Red Badger

Thank you! That’s North of where Beau hunts for Black Bear.

I have not found a SINGLE tick of ANY stripe on the house dog and the two indoor/outdoor cats this season. I think all the rain washed them out.

Of course, everyone around here is still DOUSED on a regular basis, no matter what. ;)

Beau thought he had a tick eating on him earlier this Summer...turned out it was only a VERY mild case of Shingles. ;)


38 posted on 08/05/2025 6:06:11 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
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To: butlerweave

That’s my first thought, frankly.


39 posted on 08/05/2025 6:10:03 PM PDT by OKSooner (Who says shooting woolly mammoths with a 1911 is a bad thing? )
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To: Openurmind

Vampires?............


40 posted on 08/06/2025 6:29:56 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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