Allergic to Meat: Lone Star Tick May Make Vegetarians of Some

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/allergic-meat-lone-star-tick-spreading-vegetarianism/story?id=16610228

There's a new weapon in the war on meat: a tiny tick, whose bite might be spreading meat allergies up the East Coast.

A bite from the lone star tick, so-called for the white spot on its back, looks innocent enough. But University of Virginia researchers say saliva that sneaks into the tiny wound may trigger an allergic reaction to meat -- agonizing enough to convert lifelong carnivores into wary vegetarians.

"People will eat beef and then anywhere from three to six hours later start having a reaction; anything from hives to full-blown anaphylactic shock," said Dr. Scott Commins, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "And most people want to avoid having the reaction, so they try to stay away from the food that triggers it."

Commins said cases of the bizarre allergy are popping up along the East Coast and into the Bible Belt, areas ripe with lone star ticks. He's already seen 400 or so. And 90 percent of them have a history of tick bites, he said.

[barbtries]

1. do you have a link?

i have a recent tick bite.

[Celebration]

2. added it

Very weird it was in my post when I looked, but this time I just took off the tags added...............

[2on2u]

3. This is going to have a lot of people ticked off. n/t