Doctors in the United States are seeing a rise in cases involving the Lone Star tick whose bite causes allergic reactions that prevent its victims from eating meat.

The Lone Star tick (Amblyoma americanum) has a bite that causes its victims to have a sever allergy to sugars present in red meat.

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There are at least 1,500 cases of persons in the U.S. who had been bitten by the Lone Star tick that suffered allergic reactions after eating meat. Doctors are convinced such cases are on the rise, according to Popular Science.

The condition, called the alpha-gal allergy, was traced back to the bite of the Lone Star tick, a species of tick usually found in the southern part of the nation. The tick has spread the northern parts of the U.S. in recent years.

More and more cases of meat allergies are being reported as the tick spreads. One area in Long Island, NY has seen an increase in cases from almost zero to 200 cases over the past three years, according to a doctor interviewed by Popular Science.

The link between meat allergies and the Lone Star tick was first detailed in 2008.

At the time, allergy specialists Scott Commins and Thomas Platts-Mills from the University of Virginia Health System were trying to figure out why some of their patients had developed a severe allergy to an intravenous drug for cancer called cetuximab.

The doctors learned the patients' Immunoglobulin E, or IgE, antibodies were negatively reacting to the alpha-gal, a sugar in the medicine. It was puzzling to the doctors since almost every person is able to produce the antibodies but the patients' reactions to the drug were varied.

The two doctors uncovered that the peculiar reactions only occurred in patients who were all from the southern region of the country.

TagsTick, Allergy, Meat, red meat, Science, scientific research, parasite, Patient, Cancer, Sugar