Meat Allergy Develops after Lone Star Tick Bites
Meat Allergy Develops after Lone Star Tick Bites
By Jill Anne Sparapany
Tick
bites are especially common in the summer — and they can transmit some
dangerous and even deadly conditions like Lyme disease.
But
here’s one you might not have heard about — a tick bite that causes an allergy
to red meat. The culprit is called the Lone Star tick, named after the Lone
Star state of Texas. This species of tick has spread from the Southwest to
Midwest and East Coast. (see the range map below)
In
2008, pharmaceutical researchers studying the effects of a new cancer drug,
Erbitux, observed the drug was causing severe allergic reactions in patients
only living in southern states. They found the sugars (alpha-gal) in Erbitux
(derived from mouse cells) are also present in beef, pork and cow milk. The
research team concluded these people were carrying an antibody that responded
to the sugars in the drug.
Doctors
had been noticing more and more cases of an odd phenomenon: people were
becoming allergic to red meat, suddenly and with severe allergic reactions.
Testing blood samples showed these people had the same Immunoglobulin E (IgE)
antibodies to alpha-gal/sugars as the cancer patients who reacted to Erbitux.
The
allergic reaction manifests 3-5 hours after eating meat; the scientists
reasoned the sugars triggering the reaction were stored in animal fat, which
takes longer to digest than protein or carbohydrates. This would account for
the delayed reaction, unlike other food allergies which have an immediate
reaction.
The
lead researcher on the Erbitux trials had his own IgE levels spike suddenly
after he was bitten repeatedly by ticks while hiking in the woods. This finding
opened the questioning of patients to include if they had been recently bitten
by a tick.
Recently
as the tick has increased its range, so has the occurrence of reported meat
allergies. Ninety percent (90%) of over 1.500 people who reported meat
allergies had been bitten by a tick in the weeks before their allergic
reaction. As the Long Star ticks range has increased, so has the number of cases
of meat allergy. They are concentrated in the South: Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Allergy
clusters have been seen in Pennsylvania and the East Hamptons in NY.
The
research is now focused on why this tick is producing an immune response to
alpha-gal/sugars in humans. Is it something new in the tick saliva or have the
ticks always carried it, but meat allergies are now being recognized because of
their increased range?
Doctors
say once bitten, you can develop the allergy within hours. Victims suffered
from hives, a swollen throat and tongue even anaphylactic shock after eating
red meat.
Researchers
don’t know whether the allergy is permanent but it seems to wane in 3-5 years.
However, if you are bitten again, the allergy could be more severe and
long-lasting.
One
patient who has the meat allergy states that cutting a roast beef sandwich,
without eating the beef, has precipitated an allergic reaction!
The
government has not yet issued any health warnings about meat allergies
associated with the lone star tick. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention’s lone star tick information page lists only southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI)
as a potential health consequence.
People should monitor their
health closely after any tick bite, and should consult their physician if they
experience a rash, fever, headache, joint or muscle pains, or swollen lymph
nodes within 30 days of a tick bite. These can be signs of a number of tickborne diseases.
Tick-borne illness may be
prevented by avoiding tick habitat (dense woods and brushy areas), using insect
repellents containing DEET or permethrin, wearing long pants and socks, and
performing tick checks and promptly removing ticks after outdoor activity.
If you are bitten by a tick: You want to take
special care to ensure you remove all of the tick, including the embedded head,
and prevent squeezing blood from the tick into your pet or you! Using fine
tipped tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible. Pull
upward with steady, even pressure. Do not twist or jerk the tick to remove
because you can cause mouth parts of the tick to break off, remaining in the
skin. If parts of the tick do remain in the skin, try to remove them. (The CDC,
Centers for Disease Control, state to leave the mouth part alone and let the
skin heal.) When the tick is removed, clean the bite area and your hands thoroughly
with rubbing alcohol, iodine scrub or soap and water.
Do
not attempt tick removal by “folklore remedies” using nail polish, petroleum
jelly or heat!
Do
not wait for the tick to detach.
Once
the tick is removed, place it in alcohol in a plastic container with secure
lid. Do not flush it down the toilet or burn it.
If
your pet becomes sick, develops a rash or fever within several weeks of tick
bite, see your vet. Inform them of the recent tick bite, when and where the
tick bite probably occurred. The tick you saved may help the vet determine the
illness. The same applies to any tick bite you may have!
NOTE: I did NOT find any reference to a pet developing a meat
allergy to beef pet food after being bitten by a tick. Literature review shows
this is only a human allergic reaction.
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