Scientists have confirmed the first death caused by tick-induced “meat allergy,” a condition triggered by sensitization to alpha-gal after Lone Star tick bites.
University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have reported what they describe as the first documented death linked to the tick-associated “meat allergy.”
The case involved a previously healthy 47-year-old man from New Jersey who suddenly died four hours after eating a beef meal. The reason for his death was a mystery until UVA Health allergist Thomas Platts-Mills, MD, PhD, reviewed the evidence. Platts-Mills, a leading expert who originally identified this allergy, determined that it was responsible for the fatal reaction.
This allergy develops after a person is bitten by a Lone Star tick, whose saliva can introduce and amplify exposure to alpha-gal, a carbohydrate found on cells and tissues of most non-primate mammals.
In susceptible individuals, the immune system misidentifies alpha-gal as a dangerous foreign molecule and produces specific IgE antibodies against it. Once sensitized, subsequent ingestion of mammalian meat such as beef, pork, or lamb can trigger a delayed allergic reaction typically 3–6 hours after the meal, as the alpha-gal, containing fat particles are absorbed and circulate in the bloodstream.
Scientists had long been concerned that, in severe forms, the condition could progress to deadly anaphylaxis, but this case is the first to confirm a death caused by the allergy.
“The important information for the public is: First, that severe abdominal pain occurring 3 to 5 hours after eating beef, pork or lamb should be investigated as a possible episode of anaphylaxis; and, second, that tick bites that itch for more than a week or larvae of ticks often called ‘chiggers’ can induce or increase sensitization to mammalian-derived meat,” said Platts-Mills, former chief of UVA Health’s Division of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology. “On the other hand, most individuals who have mild to moderate episodes of hives can control symptoms with an appropriate diet.”
About the Meat Allergy Death
The man from New Jersey, whose identity was not made public, had been on a camping trip with his wife and children during the summer of 2024. One evening the family ate a steak dinner at 10 p.m. He awoke at 2 a.m. with intense abdominal pain along with vomiting and diarrhea. By the next morning, the symptoms had passed, but he told his son that he had felt close to dying during the episode.
Two weeks later, still unaware that he had developed the meat allergy, he ate a hamburger at a barbecue. He began feeling unwell shortly after 7 p.m., and at 7:37 his son discovered him collapsed in the bathroom.
An autopsy was inconclusive, with the cause reported as “sudden unexplained death.”
The man’s wife, however, remained unsatisfied. She asked a doctor to review the autopsy report; the doctor contacted Platts-Mills’ team to see if alpha-gal could have played a role.
Platts-Mills obtained samples of the man’s blood that had been collected post-mortem and found that he had been sensitized to alpha-gal. Further, the blood indicated the man had had an extreme reaction, in line with what is seen in fatal anaphylaxis.
Factors That May Have Intensified the Reaction
When asked about his history of tick bites, the man’s wife said he had none this past year but had 12 or 13 chigger bites around his ankles this summer. Platts-Mills realized that many “chigger bites” in the Eastern United States are actually bites from Lone Star tick larvae.
Platts-Mills and his colleagues suspect that several factors may have contributed to the severity of the man’s reaction, including having a beer with his burger, exposure to ragweed pollen and having exercised that afternoon. Platts-Mills noted that the man’s family reported that he ate red meat very sparingly.
In the wake of the man’s death, Platts-Mills is urging physicians to be on the lookout for people who have developed the allergy or are at risk of exposure. He noted that the deer population is exploding in many states, and these animals are prime breeding grounds for the Lone Star tick that spreads the allergy.
“It is important that both doctors and patients who live in an area of the country where Lone Star ticks are common should be aware of the risk of sensitization,” Platts-Mills said. “More specifically, if they have unexpected episodes of severe abdominal pain occurring several hours after eating mammalian meat, they should be investigated for possible sensitization to the oligosaccharide alpha-gal.”
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3 Comments
I read on the internet in 2020, that blood group o would protect that person from COVID.
At least he died happy…
What mammal was really in that burger!!