But for people who are more sensitive to alpha-gal, dairy can also trigger a reaction.
It is in muscle and fat, which means steaks, bacon, and lamb chops are obvious no-no’s for people with alpha-gal syndrome. The molecule is found in the bodies of nearly all mammals other than primates, where it likely functions as a molecular tag. One hypothesis is that the tick’s saliva also contains the sugar molecule.Īlthough sometimes shorthanded as an allergy to red meat, alpha-gal syndrome is more accurately called an allergy to mammalian products. Exactly how the bites of the Lone Star tick trigger this specific immune reaction to alpha-gal is still unknown. And the tick species that causes this syndrome, the Lone Star tick, is spreading across the United States too. Since then, the true prevalence of alpha-gal syndrome has begun to reveal itself tens of thousands of Americans likely have it. It was considered a rare curiosity when it was first discovered in 2008. And so a biomedical company has found itself an accidental purveyor of specialty pork products.Īlpha-gal syndrome is an unusual allergy with an unusual history, even before genetically modified bacon entered the picture. These packages were free, but Revivicor has told the FDA it is exploring a mail-order business. Since last fall, Revivicor has been quietly sending refrigerated packages of alpha-gal-free bacon, ham, ground pork, chops, and pork shoulders to people in the alpha-gal-syndrome community. And when it did, the company realized that transplant surgeons weren’t the only ones interested. To make a pig whose organs could be harvested for transplant, Revivicor first had to make an alpha-gal-free pig. (One of its pig hearts was experimentally transplanted into a human for the first time this January.) It just so happens that the same molecule-a sugar called alpha-gal-that causes the human immune system to reject pig organs also causes the tick-associated red-meat allergy, known as alpha-gal syndrome. It came from Revivicor, a biotechnology company that genetically modifies pigs to create organs suitable for transplant into humans. This bacon was not your regular bacon, or even your fancy pasture-raised, thick-cut bacon this bacon was so exclusive that it’s not available in stores. Which brings us to the second remarkable thing about the meal. And for her, too, nothing happened, except that she remembered how good a BLT tasted. But this time, nothing happened to her as the bacon sizzled. Matthis is so sensitive that even the airborne particles wafting off a pan of cooking meat typically make her sick. They had bonded as friends over their strange shared fate, where a strip of bacon could send them into anaphylactic shock. The two women can’t eat red meat, not after they were each diagnosed with a dangerous red-meat allergy that develops, oddly enough, after tick bites. It was an unremarkable scene, except for two details.įirst, there were the EpiPens, which Matthis and Nichols both had ready in case of emergency. A few months ago, Candice Matthis and Debbie Nichols sat down with their husbands to have some bacon.