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 tick’s saliva changes a person’s 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.
It’s estimated there are well over 1000 cases on Sydney’s 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.
= new reply since forum marked as read
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 tick’s 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, that’s when they start to get bitten by ticks,” Dr van Nunen says.
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. 
They're mammals, all right, but they're marsupials (hence the pouch ).
