Increasingly, people living in bush areas of the Shire are becoming aware of Mammalian Meat Allergy (MMA).
Also known as alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), the disease is caused when a tick bites you and transfers a sugar called alpha-gal into your bloodstream.
The tick got the alpha-gal after feeding on a mammal.
People with the problem have allergic reactions – typically two to eight hours after consuming mammal: beef, pork, lamb, kangaroo, etc.
Also, sometimes dairy.
Non-mammals are poultry, seafood and reptiles.
Examples of mammalian meat products include gelatin (gelling/setting agents made from mammals), and fats such as tallow, suet, and lard.
First confirmed tick-induced red meat allergy death
The ABC reported the NSW Coroner’s findings after 18-year-old Jeremy Webb died in February after eating beef sausages while camping.
The ABC says he was the first Australian confirmed to have died from a tick-induced red meat allergy.
When having heart valve replacement, it is usual to use a pig (porcine) valve.
Sufferers of AGS are unlikely to be able to tolerate the animal valve, but there is a metal alternative.
Worse, even if insertion of the valve is successful in perhaps someone with low allergy levels, the body’s immune system is likely to attack the AGS in the valve, which will then require replacement in less than, as little as two years.
Also – a porcine derived blood thinner, called Heparin, is used extensively in heart surgery, but this can be substituted by bivalirudin, a non-animal thinner.
Heart problems
Five weeks ago, I discovered by chance that I had serious heart problems, requiring a triple by-pass, and aortic valve replacement with a metal valve.
The downside of a metal valve, as opposed to animal, is the necessary lifetime monitoring of the blood thinner warfarin.
Extensive and detailed studies of my AGS were made, and the result was my allergy was serious enough that animal products couldn’t be risked.
Last week, I had the operation at the excellent Gold Coast University Hospital, and all the signs are of success.
It is difficult not being bitten by ticks in the bush, and perhaps being infected by AGS. But by simply not eating red (mammal) meat, there should be no real problems, unlike what happened to me. There is also the problem of so-called ‘Lyme’s-like’ disease.
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