Meat allergies on the rise in North America

Allergies to meat products, caused by a tick bite, appear to be increasing in the United States. Alpha-gal syndrome results from the transfer of the Alpha-gal sugar molecule to humans via the bite of a lone star tick (1). Diagnosed cases have been noticeably increasing since 2017, and nearly half a million Americans may now be affected.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66333478

This concisely illustrates the overlap of environment, animal life, and public health. It also highlights the complexity of determining which factors have the greatest potential impact on human health – while climate change has been suspected as creating conditions that are more favorable for the survival and spread of tick populations, the rebound in wildlife populations such as the whitetail deer have been shown to contribute to the expansion of disease-bearing tick populations (2, 3).

As the condition is still relatively rare and difficult to diagnose, it remains to be seen whether the cases are increasing because of a higher incidence rate or rather a greater ability to detect the condition. In any case, trends in animal health affect human health. As animal populations shift and climate profiles change, it will be important for the medical community to stay abreast of emerging threats to public health.

- Mark Anderson

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1 - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2023). ‘Alpha-gal syndrome’, Ticks. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/alpha-gal/index.html.

2 – Hanberry, B. and Hanberry, P. (2020). ‘Regaining the history of deer populations and densities in the Southeastern United States’, Wildlife Society Bulletin, 44(3), pp. 512–518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.1118. Also available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_journals/2020/rmrs_2020_hanberry_b009.pdf.

3 – Kilpatrick, H. et al. (2014).‘The relationship between deer density, tick abundance, and human cases of Lyme disease in a residential community’, Journal of Medical Entomology, 51(4), pp. 777-784, BioOne Digital Library [Online].DOI: https://doi.org/10.1603/ME13232.Also available at: https://owu.wiscweb.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1141/2019/07/Kilpatrick-2014-The-relationship-between-deer-densi.pdf.