A recent article by the The Guardian highlights a growing epidemic of severe meat allergies caused by tick bites.
For most, a tick bite is uneventful, but some sensitive immune systems react to proteins in the parasite’s saliva and become intolerant of meat and even dairy and gelatin.
Cases of such allergies have been found in parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, and Central America, and are most prevalently on the rise in Australia and the United States.
Mammals on which ticks feed carry the parasites. The Lone Star tick of the U.S. has reportedly caused many to develop the allergy in southeastern states, home to a growing population of white-tailed deer.
Tick-bite-induced anaphylaxis, the most severe allergic reaction, which can result in death, is rare other than in Australia. Around Sydney’s northern beaches the allergy is reportedly as prevalent as peanut allergies.
The first reported case of the allergy was in November 2007. Clinical immunology specialist Sheryl van Nunen at the Royal North Shore hospital in Sydney reported it. She told Guardian Australia that she had observed the association between tick bites and the allergy “some years before 2007, but now diagnoses one to two patients every week.
Jana Pearce, a patient of doctor van Nunen, was diagnosed with mammalian meat allergy after suffering an anaphylactic shock in May 2010. She had developed a “massive rash after being bitten by a newly hatched tick 10 days before.
After suffering from anaphylactic shock twice, Jana has cut out all meat and most dairy. Explains Jana:
The hardest thing is all your social life is interrupted — you can’t go out to dinner for fear of the cross-contamination. It sort of spoils the whole experience of dining out. You have to eat very clean and you have to learn to cook again, which is the hard part.
While some people are forced to give up cruel animal products because of a tick bite, millions of others are voluntarily giving them up after learning about the harsh realities animals face on modern farms.
See for yourself.
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