Alpha-gal syndrome is the only known food allergy acquired from an arthropod bite. The lone star tick injects galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose - a sugar present on the cells of most non-primate mammals - via its saliva, sensitizing some patients to mammalian meat. Reactions appear three to six hours after eating beef, pork, lamb, or venison.
The delayed-onset allergic reaction is what makes alpha-gal syndrome so easy to miss. Most food allergies trigger within minutes;…
Alpha-gal syndrome was discovered backwards. In the mid-2000s researchers including Thomas Platts-Mills and Scott Commins were trying to…
A single tick species, Amblyomma americanum, transmits ehrlichiosis from Ehrlichia chaffeensis and E. ewingii, tularemia, Heartland virus,…
Despite expanding overlap with Lyme disease in the southeastern United States, Amblyomma americanum (the lone star tick) does not transmit…
Amblyomma americanum, the lone star tick, is named for the single white spot on the female's scutum. Unlike Ixodes ticks, which sit and…
Southern tick-associated rash illness produces an expanding red rash that looks indistinguishable from early Lyme disease, but it follows…