Rep. Morgan Griffith would love to eat an all-beef hot dog.
But the eight-term Virginia Republican from one of the biggest cattle-producing districts in Congress doesn’t eat red meat — against his will.
Griffith is one of the at least 450,000 Americans who have been diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome, a disease caused by a tick bite that can trigger a life-threatening red meat allergy. He’s using his position as the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee chairman to spread awareness and advance legislation to further research on that and other tick-borne diseases.
“I can get a good turkey dog, don’t get me wrong. But it’s just not the same,” Griffith said. Alpha-gal syndrome is the fastest growing tick-borne disease in the United States, as tick populations rise. In states with high concentrations of the pest, roughly a quarter of residents have antibodies that indicate they’ve been bitten.
The disease, caused by a bite from a variety known as the lone star tick, can trigger a potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat and other products made from mammals.
