It’s official: meat allergy has claimed its first victim. This is a 47-year-old man from New Jersey, perfectly healthy and who died suddenly, without apparent explanation, a few hours after eating a hamburger. Initially, the autopsy did not identify an official cause of death. But at his wife’s request the case was analyzed by a team of allergists from the University of Virginia, who have just revealed their findings in a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice: the death would be attributable to ‘alpha gal’ syndrome, better known as allergy to red meat, a disorder transmitted by the bite of a particular type of tick, rather rare and never fatal, at least until today.
Alpha gal syndrome is a pathology discovered only at the beginning of the 2000s, the pathogenetic mechanism of which is not yet very clear. What is certain is that it consists of an immune reaction to galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-Gal), a sugar extremely abundant in the flesh of all mammals, excluding great apes (and humans). And which can develop following the bite of some ticks, which inject this substance into the body, causing the production of specific antibodies, which will subsequently react to the alpha gal contained in the food (red meat, in fact), triggering a series of serious allergic symptoms.
Those suffering from alpha gal syndrome can no longer eat mammalian meat without experiencing debilitating skin rashes, nausea and vomiting. The possibility of reaching anaphylactic shock in the most serious cases was considered plausible, but a death caused by an allergy to red meat had never previously been confirmed.
“The important message for the public is: first, that severe abdominal pain that occurs 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 and those of mite larvae of the trombiculidae family can induce or increase sensitization to meat derived from mammals,” explains Thomas Platts-Mills, an allergist at the University of Virginia who participated in the study, one of the world’s leading experts on alpha gal syndrome. “On the other hand, most individuals who have mild to moderate episodes of hives can control their symptoms with an appropriate diet.”
The study describes in detail the tragic misadventure that happened to the 47-year-old American. The man reportedly felt ill for the first time in the summer of 2024, after eating a steak while camping with his wife and children: diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting. After a sleepless night, at the end of which he told his son that he feared for his life, nothing more for the following two weeks. And then the tragedy: a hamburger for lunch at a barbecue with friends, then the illness at 7pm, and death arriving suddenly at 7.37pm.
The cause of death was not initially identified. But post-mortem analyzes carried out by researchers at the University of Virginia, at the request of the victim’s wife, demonstrated the presence in his blood of antibodies indicative of an alpha gal syndrome, probably developed after a series of tick bites suffered over the summer. Also contributing to the severe anaphylactic reaction that killed him were several random events, such as the fact that he drank alcohol at lunch, exposure to ragweed pollen, and physical exercise done in the afternoon.
The tick most certainly associated with the development of alpha gal syndrome in the United States is the species Amblyomma americanumalso called lone star tick. It is not present in our country, but this is not enough to breathe a sigh of relief, because it is believed that even the common Italian wood tick (Ixodes ricinus) can cause alpha gal syndrome with its bite, although it is not clear how easily, and under what conditions.
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