There's an increase in emergency department visits for tick bites this time of year as people spend more time outdoors. Increasingly, these bites are linked to illness, everything from Lyme disease to babesiosis. And, there's another emerging risk linked to tick bites known as alpha-gal syndrome, which causes a red meat allergy.
Scientists first connected the dots between red meat allergies and tick bites more than a decade ago, when they identified patients who got allergic reactions such as hives or anaphylaxis after eating beef or pork. Most had been bitten by Lone Star ticks.
