A New, Evil Tick In Minnesota Could Make You Allergic To Meat

This was my meat intake last weekend: One pepperoni pizza, one Hawaiian pizza, a giant cheeseburger with bacon, chicken enchiladas, turkey sausage, a ham and cheese omelet, a hot dog, and a steak burrito. Yes, I know – I am the epitome of healthy food decisions. But try, for a moment, to imagine yourself eating all of that – and getting a surging pain in your stomach and breaking out into hives. Every time you eat meat. No thank you. I mean, that probably still wouldn’t stop me from eating steak, but how inconvenient!

That’s apparently what happens if you encounter a certain type of tick that’s recently found its way into Minnesota. The ‘meat allergy’ is known as alpha-gal, and it’s caused by bites from the lone star tick. These ticks have a whitish spot on its upper side, and typically are found down south.

To make this even more horrifying, it can take a while (including a change of diet) for this allergy to go away. And even that’s no guarantee.

So what can you do to help prevent this scariness from happening to you? Make sure to use insect repellent when going into tick-infested outdoor areas, tuck your pants into your boots, and carefully inspect yourself for ticks after coming indoors. Yikes.

Source: Fargo Forum