Tick bites on Martha’s Vineyard are forcing residents to go vegan because of alpha-gal syndrome

Their new diets bite! 

A bizarre, life-threatening tick-borne illness has made hundreds residents of Martha’s Vineyard allergic to red meat and dairy — turning many of them into forced vegans and “social pariahs” at the height of BBQ season on the ritzy island.

Skyrocketing cases of alpha-gal syndrome — a disease spread by bites from the Lone Star Tick— have ripped through the scenic summer hotspot with a total of 523 reported last year, according to the Times of London.

“I woke up at 2 a.m. with major stomach cramps and thought I had food poisoning,” said Andrew Keenan, a 58-year-old former chef, who had eaten skirt steak several hours before.

“I managed to go back to sleep but woke up four hours later and was covered in hives. I sat up in bed and almost fainted just from sitting up, that’s how low my blood pressure was,” he said of the meal in 2020 that triggered anaphylactic shock.

Keenan took an antihistamine and was rushed to a hospital, where he soon learned a bite from the blood-sucking bug was to blame, he told the outlet.

The violent meat allergy has prompted online support groups, an uptick in veganism and even “alpha-gal-friendly” menus at restaurants on the island following other frightening health scares.

Kate Sudarsky, a 26-year-old teacher, said the illness has also sucked the joy out of her summer social life.

“It has had a huge impact on me,” she told the Times. “I just can’t trust that a lot of places are able to accommodate my allergies. Or going over to somebody’s house for a potluck or a BBQ, you don’t want to be the social pariah asking people, ‘Is this vegan? What about that?’”

People who suffer from the allergy can’t eat food that contains alpha-gal, a sugar molecule carried by the tick that’s present in meats, including  beef and venison. White sugar and dairy products, ranging from butter to cheese, are also off the menu.

One slip-up can cause nasty, potentially life-threatening symptoms including hives, stomach cramps, vomiting and breathlessness, which often pop up several hours after the meal was eaten. In the most severe cases, victims can suffer from anaphylactic shock.

To cater to the illness, grocery stores and restaurants on the island are selling more plant-based substitues for ice cream, cheese and meat, according to the report.

Megan DeLisle, the general manager of the Black Dog restaurant in Edgartown, said the eatery now offers an “alpha-gal entree” to cater to the rise in folks with the allergy. 

“We’ll have local people come in and they’ll absolutely ask for alpha-gal entrees. No dairy, nothing with mammals,” she said, adding it’s a big topic of conversation on local social media groups.

“People are talking about it all the time. They get a tick bite and they’re scared, asking for advice,” she said.

Others said they’ve stopped eating out all together out of fear they might fall ill from a rogue knob of butter or chunk or cheese.

The population of Lone Star Ticks on Martha’s Vineyard have boomed in tall grasses and wooded areas in recent years — and experts fear it’s going to get worse due to the island’s growing number of deer.

“Each deer this time of year probably has a couple of hundred ticks on them that are attached and feeding and producing new ticks for the next year,”  a biologist who leads the island’s tick-safety program.

There are anywhere from 55 to 75 deer per square mile on  the island, up from 40 to 60 in 2011, he said.