47-Year-Old Becomes First Person to Die from Eating a Burger Due to Rare Meat Allergy Triggered by Bug Bite

A MAN has passed away after consuming a burger, marking what is believed to be the first recorded death associated with alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy triggered by a tick bite.

The 47-year-old airline pilot from New Jersey, US, began feeling unwell just four hours after eating steak at a barbecue in September 2024.

New Jersey man died of a tick-borne allergy called alpha-gal syndromeCredit: Getty

In the middle of the night, while camping with his family, the unnamed man experienced “severe” stomach cramps, as noted in a case report published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in Practice this week.

He was left “writhing” in pain for hours before he began vomiting, according to the researchers from the US.

By morning, he felt well enough to embark on a five-mile hike and eat breakfast, although he confided to his son that during the night he “thought [he] was going to die.”

Two weeks later, the man and his wife attended another barbecue near their home, where he ate a hamburger around 3 PM.

Earlier that summer, he had developed over a dozen itchy “bites” on his ankles, as reported by his wife to the authors of the paper.

However, researchers from the University of Virginia now suspect these were not chigger bites but rather the larvae of Lone Star ticks.

Ticks are tiny, spider-like creatures that attach to animals and humans to feed on their blood.

Typically active during warmer months, they are known to carry infections such as Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

In rare instances, a single bite can trigger alpha-gal syndrome, a red-meat allergy.

This condition results from an immune response that leads to delayed symptoms, often appearing three to five hours after consuming beef, pork, or lamb.

It is rapidly spreading across the eastern and southern US states due to the increasing deer populations, with estimates suggesting that up to half a million Americans may be affected.

After the barbecue, the man returned home and mowed the lawn for an hour. He still felt fine when his wife left the house at 7 PM.

However, at 7:20 PM, he went to the bathroom, and ten minutes later their son called, saying: “Dad is getting sick again.”

Shortly thereafter, he found his father unconscious on the bathroom floor with “vomit around him,” as documented in the report.

The son quickly dialed 911 at 7:37 PM, and paramedics initiated CPR.

A Mounting Threat

They attempted to revive him for two hours, including during the transport to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead at 10:22 PM.

The man's death was initially attributed to “natural causes,” as his postmortem did not reveal any signs of a heart attack or other life-threatening conditions.

Seeking answers about her husband's death, his wife asked her friend, Dr. Erin McFeely, a pediatrician in New Jersey, to review the autopsy report.

They then reached out to allergists and immunology specialists in Virginia to investigate whether alpha-gal syndrome might have played a role, granting permission to the Medical Examiner’s Office to send postmortem blood for testing.

Testing indicated that he had elevated levels of tryptase in the skin—a chemical released during fatal anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that was not evident in his autopsy.

The man had eaten a burger only a few hours before his deathCredit: Alamy

Blood tests also showed antibodies to a sugar called alpha-gal, a clear indication of the tick-borne meat allergy.

This suggests he is the first documented fatality from alpha-gal syndrome, according to the researchers.

They also noted that alpha-gal syndrome poses an increasing threat as the Lone Star tick and its primary host—the white-tailed deer—have migrated to new regions.

“The significance of this case is that a large and growing population in the United States is being exposed to the Lone Star tick, both due to its northern migration and the increasing deer populations in many states,” they stated.