Here’s one weird circle:
- Raising animals for meat, especially in the accelerated manner we use in America, contributes to climate change.
- Warming temperatures expand the range of the Lone Star Tick.
- The bite of this tick can lead to permanent allergy to red meat.
- So will Americans raise less red meat in the future?
Rare cases of recurrent life-threatening allergic reactions to red meat have been linked to tick bites, according to researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). JAMA (pay wall)
The bite of the lone star tick can cause a person to develop a life-threatening allergic reaction characterized by constriction of airways and a drop in blood pressure. Wikipedia
The tick is named after the single white spot present on a female’s back, a “star” you don’t want to wish on. As temperatures rise in America, more ticks survive each winter and their range is spreading.
Initially, alpha-gal syndrome was hard to diagnose because the allergic reaction occurs many hours after meat is ingested. In addition, the allergy to red meat lasts a lifetime and can become worse over time. Washington Post
Not all tick bites lead to the allergy, though I haven’t found any hard numbers. The best news is offered by that JAMA article (above) that says the reaction is “rare.” But if you live or travel in the eastern half of the USA (I’ll be conservative since the tick is spreading and pick an easy-to-remember range) and have a sudden bad reaction a few hours after a meal… stop and think… was I outside in a wooded area? Thick underbrush or high grass? Did I eat red meat? Uh oh…
The irony of the situation strikes me. It might be karma if climate change has some self-correcting elements.