Australians on the east coast are suddenly becoming deathly allergic to red meat
Source: news.com.au
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None mentioned that a severe local reaction to a tick was a risk factor for developing mammalian meat allergy (MMA), an emerging allergy where the ticks saliva changes a persons immune system to start reacting to the meat of mammals beef, pork, lamb and sometimes even dairy and gelatine.
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Clinical Associate Professor Sheryl van Nunen discovered the link between anaphylaxis to mammalian meat and Australian paralysis tick bite in 2007. Back then it was a relatively rare occurrence but fast forward nearly 10 years and she diagnoses a new case of MMA daily at her Chatswood rooms.
Its estimated there are well over 1000 cases on Sydneys northern beaches alone. Numbers are so high on the north shore that a diagnosis of MMA in adults, commonly anaphylaxis, is as prevalent as the commonest food allergy in adults, peanut allergy.
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Unlike traditional food allergies MMA has a delayed reaction of anywhere between two and 10 hours. Most reactions happen between four to six hours after ingestion. Allergic symptoms vary, from hives, to gastrointestinal pain and anaphylaxis.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/australians-on-the-east-coast-are-suddenly-becoming-deathly-allergic-to-red-meat/news-story/1f64fdb74e86fe7fd1a9c30793806548
Interesting way to safely remove tic without transmitting the alpha-gal:
Meanwhile, prevention is the best cure. Dr van Nunen advises using an ether-containing spray such as Wart-Off to freeze and kill the tick in situ and letting it drop off rather than pull it out.
I wonder how long before this disease hits here.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)If it's not this, its the neurological infections of prejudice, hatred with AR-15s on the mind.
rurallib
(62,578 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)Warpy
(111,746 posts)MMA is endemic to Texas and now spreading, mostly though Dixie. Other ticks have been spreading the allergy in Asia and parts of Europe.
Some sources give an 8 month to 5 year recovery period for the allergy to subside. Others say the allergy might be permanent.
This is likely to affect the cattle industry, causing a lot of economic hardship as sales fall. However, there will likely always be a demand for red meat among a majority who can still eat it.
Chakab
(1,727 posts)the largest contributors to environmental problems that is rarely mentioned in that context.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Livestock agriculture is destroying the biosphere and eliminating what's left of the wildlife on this planet.
Mankind will pay the price for its wanton destruction of our ecosphere.
Maybe you have seen this already....
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BztNHmy4v7TpYVdjaHoxdTlGQXc/view?usp=sharing
ncgrits
(916 posts)I have a close friend with this allergy. And know of three others. Chapel Hill, NC.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Even if it's also tick bites, there certainly is no bandicoot reservoir in Chapel Hill.
Dr van Nunen blames the proliferation of bandicoots. And this is where the allergy gets even stranger. When the tick feeds on a bandicoot or other small mammal, it picks up a small amount of alpha-gal from its blood, which is transmitted from the ticks gut into the human when the tick is pulled off. It is this sugar that people with MMA become allergic to.
What I often see is when people are starting to report bandicoot holes in their backyard, thats when they start to get bitten by ticks, Dr van Nunen says.
ncgrits
(916 posts)Sounds like a Rainbow Soccer league team! My friend got it from a tick bite. His wife, my business partner, misses bacon so much! But she's given up all red meat in solidarity. (And of course she's healthier for it....)
Go Bandicoots!
bucolic_frolic
(43,956 posts)Even with antibiotics and cure, the immune system lags for months
or a couple of years in my experience
I've had Lyme about 8 times, and the bites now become red
and needle-like itchy in 3 days, so it never gets full blown like
a 4 week infection
Doctor Who
(147 posts)Do you live with a herd of deer? Kidding aside, I'm glad you have it under control. I have a friend how had un-diagnosed Lyme disease for months. Your right, it wiped her her out. Between the constant fatigue and messed up immune system, she thought she was dying. She's doing better now.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)A dear friend has it. She lives in Hawai'i, and contracted it while on her honeymoon in MN. Needless to say, Lyme expertise on O'ahu is minimal at best.
bucolic_frolic
(43,956 posts)For some people it seems to go underground. They seem to get better initially,
then it goes deep inside. A relative had that, and spent a month in hospital
with IV doxycycline, then 6 months on it.
For some reason, perhaps the local tick and deer populations, my household
gets it fast. 3 days for one leads to a raging infection and fever. The males
get sick slowly until about 3 weeks when the bulls eye rash hits and fever
and every ache you can name. Doxycycline tabs clear it in a month.
There are other tick diseases. Erlychiosis is one. Not sure of the spelling there.
Darb
(2,807 posts)How does your family encounter so many tick bites?
bucolic_frolic
(43,956 posts)Deep Woods Off?
It doesn't work here.
Deep in the woods
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)They're mammals, all right, but they're marsupials (hence the pouch ).
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Wouldn't want to hurt Big Cattle.
Lars39
(26,134 posts)I've got a family member with it.
valerief
(53,235 posts)GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)Is there a crowd funding link to donate to research for the cure?
FailureToCommunicate
(14,080 posts)inside...
Lot's more info here:
http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2015/02/12/4178721.htm
eppur_se_muova
(36,349 posts)What idiot decided that nuts needed to taste like MEAT ?? Fucking nonexistent Chinese safety standards !
Hekate
(91,559 posts)Ned Flanders
(233 posts)I've been bitten by over a hundred ticks in my lifetime, and found hundreds (if not thousands) more before they could bite, I kid you not. I spend most of my hikes off trail, in the chaparral of California. While the literature says you won't feel a tick bite, I must disagree, as I almost always feel the initial bite, no matter how small they are. I wish someone would study me, because I do wonder about Lymes and other tick-borne disease. A survey of a park near my home found 25% of deer ticks carried the disease. I've been tested twice for Lymes, both came up negative, but the tests are notoriously inaccurate. I have had bullseye rashes and significant swelling, but other bug bites can react the same way on me. Sure, I'm often fatigued, my joints ache, I get random headaches and went through a period there with G.I. issues and really bad rashes. But I assume that's just aging (49yo), lol.
So what have I learned?
They're attracted to dark colors. Tick researchers drag a piece of blue carpet around the forest to collect them.
Early thought was the tick had to be latched on to you for at least 24 hours for the disease to be transmitted. A more recent study indicates only 8 hours is required.
If treated immediately (within weeks, I recall), it can be cured. If treatment is delayed it hides itself in various parts of our body, making its removal effectively impossible.
Taking a hot bath or spending an extended time swimming in the local river is not a 100% effective removal technique. Leave your shoes outside after a hike, to prevent hitchhikers gradually emerging from them over the next couple days. Tuck your pants into your socks, and your shirt into your pants, if you don't mind the fashion faux paus. Everytime you take a break while hiking, do a check for ticks. Don't take your dog hiking riverside on the first sunny day in spring, after a good rain.
Lymes may have been engineered by our Gov't into the disease it is today. Yes, it sounds like Agenda 21 nonsense, but the bullseye map of its discovery has the U.S.'s Plum Island Animal Disease Center at its middle. That's a heck of a coincidence, Good Neighbor!
burrowowl
(17,691 posts)felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)like pets? I'm going to read up on this, thanks.