Tick bites can cause meat allergies

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Imagine enjoying a hamburger at a summertime family cookout just to fall deathly ill hours later. And suddenly you're violently allergic to all red meats, forever.

With one tick bite, those bitten may have to avoid barbecues for the rest of their lives. This newly discovered - and extremely rare - allergy carried by ticks is perplexing and educating area doctors.

It's so rare, in fact, that many local doctors contacted by KXAN News had never heard of it.

But it exists, local allergists said. It could be deadly. And this allergy, the experts said, is permanent.

Patients were becoming severely allergic to red meats, beef pork, venison and lamb.

"They were going into allergic shock. Patients' throats would swell. They'd break out in hives from head to toe, they'd have trouble breathing. Their throats may swell shut, and they could go into shock or their blood pressures drop and lose unconsciousness," said Dr. Robert Cook of the Central TX Allergy and Asthma Center .

The disease is called " Alpha-gal ," short for Alpha-galactosidase. It's transferred by a tick bite, which causes a delayed allergic reaction to the sugars in mammal flesh for humans.

"Through a long process, they discovered that patients as adults are sensitized by seed ticks and chiggers, and have large local reactions to those, and then develop an allergy," he said.

Sometimes it gets misdiagnosed as food poisoning, especially during the busy outdoor cooking season.

There aren't any known cases in Texas yet, but don't let your guard down. If traveling to the southeastern U.S., people could get into territory that can cause immune systems to suddenly have a beef  -- with beef.

Alpha-gal is concentrated in the eastern U.S. and the South. "Why" is still a mystery. But Texans aren't in the clear. In fact most of Texas is in the zone where one of the main carriers, the Lone Star Tick, can be found.

Cook says Alpha-gal isn't curable. But it can be treated.

And during reactions, it's treated like a bee sting. Sufferers must carry Epi-pens, always read labels carefully and ask questions about food preparation when eating out.

Finding the root of the allergy is still a ways off. But now doctors know to look back at old cases to see if perhaps something new can be found.

For more on food allergies, go to www.foodallergy.org .