Alpha-Gal Syndrome: The Red Meat Allergy from a Tick Bite
working in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley provide her with many opportunities to expand her
culinary horizons and continue to learn and grow through hunting, fishing, foraging, and farming.
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I skipped spring turkey season this year. This proved to be a painful decision. I was seeing turkeys nearly every day, and I have the privilege to hunt generous parcels of private farmland. But I had to sit out because of what happened to me last year — and more importantly, what didn’t happen…at least not yet.
Imagine being an avid deer hunter and finding out you can’t eat venison anymore. Not only that, consuming it can potentially kill you, or, at the very least, make you very sick. No more tenderloin fresh from the field; no season’s first backstrap shared among loved ones. Not to mention the plethora of domesticated mammalian meat and dairy that’s off the table.
This is the unfortunate reality for thousands of Americans — and counting — who have contracted alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), or simply “alpha-gal.” AGS is a condition caused by the bite of the lone star tick, which can cause a mysterious allergy to the carbohydrate alpha-galactose, which is found in every mammal except apes and humans. It’s in their meat, fat, and milk and in products derived from them.
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Science has only been aware of AGS for a few decades, and research is ongoing. Unlike typical food allergies to common allergens like peanuts and shellfish, the onset of an AGS reaction can be delayed for several hours, sometimes occurring in the middle of the night when the individual is sleeping. Reactions may vary in severity and may not occur with every exposure, but they can be life-threatening. Symptoms of an AGS reaction may include hives, difficulty breathing, and anaphylaxis. People with AGS anecdotally report severe pain, inflamed red skin, itching, and gastrointestinal distress.
Some can develop severe symptoms just from handling mammal meat, or smelling it being cooked (a “fume reaction”). There are many foods, pharmaceuticals, and other manufactured products with mammalian ingredients, such as gelatin, that can also trigger reactions. And the problem’s only getting worse as environmental factors aid in the expansion of the lone star tick’s range northward.
Here’s my experience with alpha-gal.
I hunted way too hard last spring. It was the first time I’d pursued turkeys since learning how to hunt in 2018, and I had a private riverside farm lot to myself. I got one to gobble at my natural voice barred owl call and the game was on.
To the bafflement of my loving partner, I’d be in that field before dawn overzealously running my box and slate, braving the unseasonal heat, relentless hay fever, flies, gnats, poison ivy, and ticks. It was a lush, wet place with chest-deep grass, and I began to see ticks as early as March. As the season wore on, obsession clouded my judgement and I became increasingly reckless, half-heartedly spraying DEET bug spray on my boots and neglecting to do timely tick checks. I got permethrin, but should have been using it much sooner than I finally did.
A series of close encounters only stoked my madness. Most frustratingly of all, on the hottest, most humid day of the season, a huge group of males led by an absolute dinosaur of a tom finally came out in front of me. I was woefully unprepared. They crossed the field just out of range, too close to call to without revealing myself, and I missed my only chance.
I got them to shock gobble at me from the bushes for the next hour or so, but never saw a bird again through the season’s end. I’d routinely be out for hours on end and not hear a peep until just after shooting light, when they’d sound off from the roost. I was physically and mentally defeated, but the worst was yet to come.
Sitting at home on the couch, I found a lone star tick attached to my head. It was dead, and not fully engorged, but dread and revulsion struck me. The bite site became inflamed, and the lymph nodes on the back of my head and my groin became painfully swollen. The doctor put me on antibiotics and delivered sickening news — they’d found the antibodies in my blood, indicating a positive test for alpha-gal syndrome.
The next few weeks were very emotional for me and my partner. He was very supportive as he reminded me I would still be able to eat poultry and fish (and reptiles and amphibians, I added desperately, wondering if I could handle spearing a frog). “May I get whatever I deserve,” I said as I ate backstrap from my first buck, absolutely terrified it might be the last time. About eight hours later, I had red welts all over my lower body.
My partner and I had tearful conversations about what I’d need to give up eating and how my lifestyle would need to change, while counting our blessings and trying to avoid wallowing in self-pity. I loathed my springtime stupidity and rued my carelessness. Chasing turkeys had cost me my preferred proteins. I would no longer be able to enjoy the body buzz from venison, or the grassfed beef from the farm where I worked.
Or so I thought.
My partner, who does not hunt, work outside, or otherwise tangle with ticks, soon broke out in the same rash. Research determined that they were not hives, but bites from some kind of chigger or itch mite. Two coworkers from the farm confirmed this with their own rashes. We think my partner was bitten from using my car, and it didn’t reoccur after I put permethrin on my seats. I continued to eat red meat — multiple times a day, like it was about to be outlawed — developing no other symptoms and clearing the rash with a steroid cream.
This was last year. So far, I have not had an AGS reaction, and though some people can take up to a year to show symptoms, I’m optimistic that I’ve been spared. I’ve also learned that not everybody bitten by the lone star tick develops the allergy, and that there may be a genetic component involved. It’s possible for the condition to resolve or at least lessen over time, if subsequent tick bites are avoided. Therein lies my reason for sitting out 2025 spring turkey season.
A recent Virginia Fish and Wildlife Department article pointed out that people around here get bitten a lot, and they’re fine. Still, I know and continue to meet locals who have gotten AGS, including the farmer on whose land I picked up my lone star in the turkey fields.
For some, AGS is getting better with time. For others, a specialized acupuncture treatment seems to work. But some people are sent to the ER from eating their favorite foods. It’s a strange and scary thing, and I would not wish it on anyone. What I do wish is that I’d been more prudent, and I truly hope every outdoors-person and food lover reading this will do all they can to protect themselves from ticks.
There is no cure for AGS yet, but it’s totally preventable. Wear long sleeves and tall boots with your pant legs tucked into them. Treat outer clothing, gear, and car seats with permethrin. Utilize bug spray with DEET.
If you’re wary of these chemicals, I’ve heard good things about the repellent qualities in lemon eucalyptus oil, and pine tar or sulfur soap. A few old timers suggest garlic pills and peppermint soap. Be especially careful in the grass. Check yourself multiple times, everywhere, no matter how tired you are.
Also, remember how delicious venison is and how deer can carry massive tick loads and bring them to places where you coexist. I found ticks on the deer I killed in late November last year. Tickborne illnesses are very serious and this is all the more reason to utilize hunting as a responsible deer management tool. I’ve even heard that alpha-gal syndrome may be transmittable by other biting insects now. If you do get alpha-gal syndrome and still wish to hunt mammals, consider donating the meat to those in need.
There’s still a possibility I could acquire AGS reactions, particularly if I’m bitten again. So it felt like a sensible and even spiritual thing to do to let the birds be and focus on fishing and foraging this year. I threw myself headlong into those dank, teeming fields with the fever only twilight turkey gobbles can evoke, and I made a major mistake. So when I started seeing grip-and-grins of fans, beards, and spurs, I nibbled on vernal wildflowers, dusted off my fly-tying stuff and hid all things turkey hunting from my feed.
Never underestimate the power of nature’s smallest threats. Ticks are one of the most aggressive and dangerous creatures you’ll encounter out there, and just one bite from one tick can make you allergic to the wild food you love.
Thank you for that cautionary tale. I hope you recover completely. But I’m puzzled as to why foraging and fly fishing would be safer than turkey hunting. Do you think sitting still is more risky than moving?