Consider this a warning.

13bullets

13bullets

Chris
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Location
Lincolnton
Because afterwards, you can't say I didn't warn you.

I thought this headline was a typo and was supposed to say vegetable. Boy was I wrong...

So, um, what? After getting bitten by this tick some people develop allergies to red meat. This particular lady in the article had to eliminate from her diet "certain pastries that are made with BEAVER ANAL SCENT GLANDS."

At this point, never mine the tick. You read that right? Some raspberry-filled pastries are made with castoreum, a chemical that comes from the anal scent glands of the North American beaver.

The best part? It's often masked on ingredient lists as "natural flavoring."

Another interesting tidbit? It's often used to contribute to the odor and flavor of cigarettes.

You're welcome.



http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/3/the-tick-that-canturnitsvictimsvirtuallyvegetarian.html


The tick that can turn its victims virtually vegetarian

by Ryan Schuessler

@RyanSchuessler1

October 3, 2013 5:00AM ET
Aggressive and rapidly growing lone star tick can give people it bites severe allergies to meat and mammal products
Topics:

Health

Food

Disease​
​


aamerica.aljazeera.com_content_ajam_articles_2013_10_3_the_tic6b2fd5b13ab238d91caa84401e12ca28.jpg

The lone star tick's bite can release an antibody into its victims that makes them allergic to alpha-gal, a sugar found naturally in mammals.CDC
COLUMBIA, Mo. — It was a just a few pieces she sneaked off a pot roast that sent Chris Richey of Millersburg, Mo., to the hospital. She was covered in hives, her hands and arms “fire truck” red, itching so badly she was scratching the skin off.
“This allergy is so weird,” she said. “It’s turned my life upside down.”
Doctors had misdiagnosed her early reactions as a stomach virus or the flu, but recent research has validated what her own research had already uncovered: Richey is living with an allergy to red meat, likely brought on by a tick bite she suffered barely a year ago.
She is one of what researchers estimate could be tens of thousands of people who have developed an allergy to alpha-gal, a sugar found naturally in mammals. Researchers believe the allergy is linked to bites from the lone star tick, a species named after its native range of Texas and the single white spot on its back. After being bitten, some victims carry a type of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody that, in turn, causes the allergic reaction to alpha-gal.
A lone star tick bit Richey, 58, in August 2012 while she was sitting with her husband in the shade of their apple tree in rural Missouri. She now carries the IgE antibody to alpha-gal. Her life hasn’t been the same since.
Patients exhibited reactions from eating beef, pork, venison, lamb — there was even a case of a reaction to squirrel meat reported at the University of Virginia clinic. Other products that come from mammals can trigger reactions as well.
Richey has to have her medicine custom made because some pill casings contain gelatin, which comes from cows or pigs. Dairy is also out of the picture for her, since alpha-gal can show up in milk. She knows of another victim who had to cut out her favorite raspberry-filled pastries because the artificial flavoring is made with castoreum, a chemical that comes from the anal scent glands of the North American beaver.
View attachment aamerica.aljazeera.com_content_ajam_articles_2013_10_3_the_tic6fa1ad872b843eea7566fad5988cdd77.png
Chris Richey's life was turned upside down after she suffered a lone star tick bite that left her allergic to meat and other animal products. Courtesy Chris Richey
“What is so bothersome to me is the cross-contamination issue and all the hidden ingredients,” Richey said.
Anything containing, or that has come in contact with, a product from a mammal is a danger to people living with the alpha-gal allergy, Richey said. Not to mention that having to switch to a near-vegan lifestyle can add up at the supermarket checkout counter.
“You’ve got to think, and double think, and think some more. It gets tiring,” she said. “It’s Russian roulette. The next time I have to get a tetanus shot, I don’t know what’s going to happen because I don’t know what’s going to be in it.”
Richey isn’t alone, and the numbers are growing.
“We get daily emails from people who want to know about their tick bites and their reactions,” Platts-Mills said. “There’s no doubt that there are thousands of cases.”
Lone star ticks have spread beyond the middle South in the last 20 years, having been reported asfar north as Wisconsin and as far east as Maine. They tend to follow white-tailed deer, their host of choice, whose population has also been growing across the country, said Susan Little, a professor of veterinary parasitology at Oklahoma State University. The white-tailed deer population has exploded in recent years, with a Cornell University study (PDF) attributing the increase to changes in habitat, "including reversion of abandoned farm fields to forest, and shifts in human population to rural and suburban areas."



aamerica.aljazeera.com_content_ajam_articles_2013_10_3_the_tice597d210ce8c4185a91d550a59d44b5e.jpg

This map from 2011 shows the spread of the lone star tick, which originated in Texas.CDC
Lone star ticks need warm, humid environments to survive. Little said recent above-average temperatures combined with habitat change could be fueling the increase. When there are more shrubby plants and ample leaf litter, she said, not only do deer have more to eat, but there are more places for ticks to live and survive.
One way people can protect themselves from ticks, Little said, is to put pets on tick-control medicine so they can’t bring the ticks into the home or close to people.
“Every dog should be on tick control. Every dog, every month, all year long,” she said. “Having the dog treated (for ticks) will really protect the whole family.”
The lone star tick is an aggressive species. Instead of waiting for its host to walk by like most tick species, this one will actively pursue it. Females can lay up to 7,000 eggs at a time, and the lone star is the only tick in the United States that can bite humans when it’s still a larva, Little said.
That’s how Platts-Mills got the alpha-gal allergy himself. In 2007, after hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, he found nearly 200 lone star larvae on his leg after they burrowed through his sock. He discovered his allergy that year when he broke out in hives after eating lamb at a conference in London.
Click to expand...
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum

Food use[edit]

In the United States, castoreum is considered to be a GRAS food additive by the Food and Drug Administration.[10] It is often referenced simply as a "natural flavoring" in products' lists of ingredients. While it is mainly used in both foods and beverages as part of a substitute vanilla flavour,[11] it is less commonly used as a part of a raspberry or strawberry flavoring.[12] The annual industry consumption is very low, around 300 pounds,[13] whereas vanillinis over 2.6 million pounds annually.[14]
Castoreum has been traditionally used in Scandinavia for flavoring snaps commonly referred to as "Bäverhojt".[15]
Other uses[edit]

Castoreum is also used to contribute to the flavor and odor of cigarettes.[16]
Medieval beekeepers used it to increase honey production.[17]
Chemical composition[edit]

There are at least twenty-four compounds known to be constituents of beaver castoreum. Some of these have pheromonal activity. These are the phenols 4-ethylphenol and 1,2-dihydroxybenzene (catechol) and the ketones acetophenone and 3-hydroxyacetophenone. Five additional compounds noted are 4-methyl-1,2-dihydroxybenzene (4-methylcatechol), 4-methoxyacetophenone, 5-methoxysalicylic acid, salicylaldehyde, and 3-hydroxybenzoic acid.[18] Other neutral compounds are oxygen-containing monoterpenes such as 6-methyl-l-heptanol, 4,6-dimethyl-l-heptanol,isopinocamphone, pinocamphone, two linalool oxides and their acetates.[19] Other compounds are: benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, borneol, o-cresol, 4-(4'-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanone, hydroquinone,phenol. All those compounds are gathered from plant food.[17] It also contains nupharamine alkaloids[20] and castoramine,[21] and cis-cyclohexane-1,2-diol.[22]
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It's also found in most perfumes and make up and deodorant. The chemical comes from there caster gland which when dried has a musty sweet smell. When the chemical holds and increases the flavor of most artificial flavoring, it also masks odors.
 
Weird:confused: ....................Rasberries are about the only thing I don't like to eat :confused: ......and liver!............... but I am very fond of beaver, I can eat it for hours :smokin:
 
I was reading the other day about battered women. And to think I've been eating mine plain all these years.
 
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