Is it possible to be allergic to red meat?
Yes. Alpha-gal allergy is a temporary but severe reaction to red meat. It results from tick bites. The species involved include the paralysis tick in Australia, the lone star tick in the southeastern United States and the castor bean tick in Europe.
Symptoms can include hives, low blood pressure, facial swelling, trouble breathing and loss of consciousness. The allergic reaction is unusual because symptoms appear three to six hours after a person eats meat, while most allergic reactions rarely take longer than an hour to occur. Also, alpha-gal allergy can develop late in life, whereas most allergies develop in childhood.
Sheryl van Nunen of the University of Sydney Medical School in Australia was the first to connect tick bites and meat allergy; she published the evidence in 2007. Researchers at the University of Virginia and scientists in Europe and Australia established that some people who have a severe reaction to tick bites - bites that cause welts and lingering red circles - could also develop a tremendously heightened sensitivity to a sugar in meat called alpha-gal.
To diagnose a red meat allergy, a blood test is needed. If an alpha-gal allergy is confirmed, the person probably will have to give up most red meats. (Alpha-gal is most concentrated in animal fat, which is why the reaction is delayed: Fat takes a long time to digest.) They also should be careful with gelatin and drugs that contain alpha-gal, such as the intravenous fluid replacement products gelofusine and haemaccel.
The allergy fades with time.
ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 12/09/2013