Several Species Of Ticks Transmit A Rare And Potentially Deadly Red Meat Allergy
Scientists have long thought that only one species of tick found in the United States, the lone star tick, could transmit a rare and potentially deadly meat allergy.
But new reports of the allergy, known as alpha-gal syndrome, show that black-legged ticks can spread the disease as well.
Lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) are found mainly in the southern and eastern U.S., while black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also called deer ticks, are more widespread.
They inhabit the eastern half of the U.S. and the Midwest. The western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) is present on the West Coast.
New case reports suggest that people across a large portion of the U.S. are at risk of tick-borne alpha-gal syndrome. Evidence shows that most patients develop the allergy after getting bitten by a lone star tick.
Outside of the U.S., a variety of tick species have been tied to alpha-gal syndrome. So, scientists had suspected that black-legged ticks in the U.S. also have the capability of transmitting the allergy.
“For us, it was never just the lone star tick,” said Jennifer Platt, co-founder of the nonprofit Tick-Borne Conditions United and a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“With thousands of Lyme [a tick-borne disease] patients telling us they can’t tolerate red meat, we’ve long suspected black-legged ticks and other tick species in the U.S.”
In alpha-gal syndrome, the immune system overreacts to a sugar called galactose-a-1, 3 galactose, or alpha-gal for short.
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This can lead to the development of severe allergic reactions to red meat and even some medications, personal care products, and medical treatments with ingredients from mammalian tissues, which is where the sugar is found.
The first reported case of alpha-gal syndrome was in a 45-year-old woman from Maine. On May 4, 2022, she discovered a tick on her left arm after coming back from a wooded path in York County, Maine. She first experienced inflammation and itchiness at the site of the bite.
Nine days later, she experienced abdominal pain and malaise after a meal of roasted rabbit meat. Over the next two weeks, she continued having digestive issues when consuming red meat.
She visited a healthcare provider following a severe episode of vomiting and diarrhea hours after eating beef. By then, it had been 20 days after the tick bite.
Blood tests revealed extremely high levels of immunoglobulin specific to alpha-gal, confirming that she had alpha-gal syndrome. Her allergy was resolved after 10 months.
The second case involved a 61-year-old female wildlife biologist in Washington. In May 2017, she experienced lip swelling and a skin rash after being bitten by a western black-legged tick.
She had a severe allergic reaction 29 days later after eating red meat and required emergency epinephrine treatment. Once she was diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome, she avoided meat and had no further reactions.
It is unclear why tick bites can trigger alpha-gal syndrome. More research is needed to get down to the bottom of the issue and to determine why lone star ticks cause more cases than black-legged and other ticks.
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