Health experts are issuing a warning to keep an eye out for ticks this spring as a certain type is popping up in the DMV and can cause people to develop an allergy to red meat. The Lone star tick is an aggressive species that thrives in many different environments.
"This particular tick species unlike other tick species has a sugar in its saliva called Alpha-gal and so when this tick species bites a person, your body elicits a response, it's an allergic reaction to that Alpha-gal sugar," Dr. Cumbie says. "It forms antibodies which will then ramp up your immune system and cause these allergic reactions."
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