Has The Lone Star Tick Been Genetically Modified?

Ticks have been around a long, long time. Their bites itch like hell and they can in some cases cause infections. Some people may be allergic to their bites.

In June of 2012 doctors in Virginia started getting an influx of patients who break out in hives, fierce, burning ferociously intractable itchy hives within 3-4 hours of eating eat beef pork or lamb. They are unaffected by chicken and turkey.

These people, numbering upwards of 1000 come from all walks of life, they are a wide variety of ages and encompass men, women and children. The only thing they all have in common is that they have all been bitten by a lone star tick,  Amblyomma americanus to give it it’s proper name just prior to developing their meat allergy.

Researchers at the University of Virginia have no idea why this has only recently started to happen. Although they have come across patients who are allergic to the tick bites none have ever come across patients who develop an allergy to something else due to the bite.

All that they have discovered so far is that a reaction to the saliva of the tick causes a rise in alpha-gel, a sugar found in red meat rises after a single tick bite but the delay of several hours between eating the meat and developing the hives is causing problems with the research.

They admit they cannot find a reason why the ticks should suddenly start affecting people like this. They also admit that like most allergy sufferers those with this condition stop eating meat almost immediately to avoid the intense irritation caused by it.

How convenient for those who want reduce the amount greenhouse gases produced by livestock on the planet that this should occur.

How convenient for those scientists worried about decreasing water levels if cattle were slaughtered because nobody ate meat anymore. A cow drinks 7-10% of its own body weight in water each day.

How convenient for companies like Monsanto  if crops replaced meat as the first world’s only food source.

How convenient for government that people stop eating meat of their own accord especially when they are stopping people from growing food in their own gardens.

Just sayin’.

Take care

Lizzie