Ticking Time Bomb: How Ticks Are Fast Becoming a Major Public Health Threat

COLUMBIA, Ky.—After a four-wheeler ride with her husband, Mackie Jo Pennington sat on her aunt’s porch, not noticing the tiny dots on her pant leg.

As it turned out, those dots were poppy-seed-sized ticks associated with the nymph stage.

​“I pulled 116 off me when we got home,” she recalled. “They were teeny-tiny little.”

​She believes that Sunday evening in September 2008 changed her life forever.

​Pennington began feeling sick and could no longer eat red meat. Years passed before she was diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome, a red-meat allergy caused by a tick bite.

The syndrome was uncommon when Pennington was diagnosed in 2014. Today, it’s considered one of the fastest-growing tick-borne illnesses in the country.

“Seems like I meet somebody every day or talk to somebody every day who has it,” Pennington told The Epoch Times.

With an estimated 31 million people bitten by a tick every year, the number of tick-borne diseases is exploding. Across the country, ticks are expanding into new territory and spreading illnesses as they go, including lesser-known illnesses such as alpha-gal. As scientists seek answers, doctors, public health officials, and lawmakers are grappling with how to respond.

Tick Territory

Ask folks around Columbia, a town of 4,800 in Adair County, about alpha-gal, and chances are good they’ve heard about someone with the syndrome.

In 2018, ​Pennington attended an Adair County Extension Service meeting about the syndrome. She estimated that about half of some 50 people in attendance reported having alpha-gal. Since then, four other people in her family have developed it.

Nick Roy, Adair County agriculture and natural resources extension agent supervisor, organized that meeting eight years ago to help educate the public about the syndrome, named for a sugar molecule found in non-primate mammals.

“Adair County and several of the counties around us appear to have a quite large number of folks who have alpha-gal, just from what we hear,” Roy told The Epoch Times.

​Given the town’s proximity to backwoods, lakes, and rivers that attract outdoor enthusiasts—and ticks—it’s no surprise people there are familiar with the problem.

​Columbia serves as a gateway to fishing, boating, and paddling on the Green River and its reservoir. The Green River rises in the knobs of Lincoln County near Halls Gap, winds west into Green River Lake near Columbia and Campbellsville, and empties into the Ohio River near Spottsville.

The lone star tick is Kentucky’s most common tick species. However, the blacklegged tick, or deer tick, which is the main culprit behind widespread Lyme disease in New England, has also established itself in the state.​

Unlike other tick species, lone star ticks aggressively hunt for hosts—including people—and are most commonly associated with alpha-gal syndrome in the United States. Blacklegged ticks and others wait passively in weeds or grass to latch onto passing hosts.

The lone star tick moves about three times faster than typical ticks. It will travel several yards toward carbon dioxide and vibrations, according to entomologists.

Lone star ticks “will run 15 to 30 meters [about 100 feet] to find you if you sit still in the woods,” said Holly Gaff, a biology professor at Old Dominion University, in an informational video produced by the university.

Those used to the woods and mountains often view ticks the way they view mosquitoes—just part of hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking the trails.

In nearby Campbellsville, Kentucky, Danny Berry told The Epoch Times he has lived in the area for 22 years and is used to tick bites.

He pulled up his pant leg, showing an angry-looking spot with a red center.

“This one here, it’s not made me sick or nothing, but they’ve left quite a few big holes in there,” he said.​

It was one of about 15 tick bites he’s gotten this year, mainly while hunting and fishing. This summer, he said, the area is crawling with ticks.

“You'll go mow your yard and come back in and have two or three,” he said. “I’ve never seen it like that.”

Berry shrugs when asked if all those bites worry him.

“I’m used to it,” he said. “I’ve been bit by a brown recluse [spider].”

At the local Day and Day feed store in Columbia, longtime sales associate Kim Darnell said customers frequently come in for products to treat their lawns for ticks.

“We’re seeing a lot of ticks. We’re seeing a lot of alpha-gal,” she said, adding that she personally knows eight people with the red-meat allergy.

“My neighbor has it. She’s like a tick magnet. She sprays herself and still gets them.”

Uptick in Cases

Professor Sonja Swiger, a Texas A&M AgriLife entomologist, said tick-borne illnesses haven’t been in the public eye as much as those caused by mosquitoes, which are controlled with insecticides to protect public health.

But tick-borne diseases have increased more dramatically than mosquito-borne illnesses such as West Nile and dengue fever.

“One of the harder parts is to get people to be more conscientious and aware of tick-borne pathogens because we don’t have citywide or community-wide tick control,” Swiger told The Epoch Times.

Researchers are trying to pinpoint what’s causing the rise in tick-borne illnesses, she said. Some attribute the increased range to milder winters across the United States, rebounding deer populations, and changes in forest and land use.

For example, one scholarly paper argues the lone star tick, which is spreading northward, is simply reclaiming territory it held in the 18th and 19th centuries before it largely died out in the region after deforestation.

The three ticks responsible for transmitting most diseases to people are the dog, blacklegged, and lone star ticks. They can cause illnesses such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme disease, and alpha-gal, respectively.

Scientists are also puzzling over the emergence of new tick-borne illnesses, Swiger said.

Pathogens transmitted to humans from insects are complex, she noted. Animals may live with pathogens without incident, unlike humans. Or the pathogen may change, allowing it to be passed on to humans, she said.

People may not even realize they’ve been bitten, especially if they encounter tiny nymph-stage ticks, making diagnosis more difficult.

“The fact that people are talking about it will definitely lead to further research and hopefully come up with some answers,” she said.

​Public Health Threat

Jennifer Galardi, a senior policy analyst for restoring American wellness at The Heritage Foundation, believes the public health sector should devote just as much effort to the tick problem as to reducing mosquitoes.

A 2018 CDC study found that tick-borne disease cases more than doubled from 2004 to 2016.

Overall, ticks account for more than 75 percent of all diseases caused by vectors—a category that also includes mosquitoes and fleas—according to a 2025 review article published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Galardi noted the tick problem is serious enough for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue a call to action.

​HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced in May a series of major initiatives to strengthen the nation’s response to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.

The initiatives include a multimillion-dollar pilot program focused on tick control, up to $2.5 million in innovation challenges, funding for NIH researchers to combat alpha-gal syndrome, and a public–private collaboration to help patients connect with experienced providers.

“Early treatment is key, I think, and [tick-borne illness] is something that is affecting more and more Americans, and it can be debilitating. So I do think there needs to be an effort,” Galardi told The Epoch Times.

​Part of the problem is that tick-borne illnesses are sometimes hard to diagnose, she said.

The symptoms of Lyme disease, contracted by an estimated 476,000 Americans annually, can mimic those of other neurologic, psychiatric, inflammatory, or autoimmune diseases.

Nicknamed “the great imitator,” Lyme is heavily concentrated in the northeast, mid-Atlantic, and upper midwestern United States. Symptoms include fatigue, arthritis, anxiety, depression, cognitive issues, headaches, thyroid, and sleep disorders.

In recent years, researchers at Connecticut’s Agricultural Experiment Station found nearly half of more than 2,000 deer ticks collected in 2019 were infected with Lyme disease, named after the Connecticut town where it was first identified in the 1970s.

Some Lyme disease victims experience post-treatment or chronic Lyme symptoms, in which ailments such as fatigue, body aches, or difficulty thinking linger, leading doctors to prescribe some off-label treatments, including prolonged antibiotic courses and individual clinical judgment to treat ongoing symptoms.

A Biting Problem

New tick-borne illnesses are compounding the problem for public health officials.

Since 2004, seven new illnesses spread through the bite of an infected tick were discovered or recognized in the United States as capable of infecting people, the CDC reported.

That list includes the rare Heartland virus, first identified in Missouri around 2009. Then there’s the Bourbon virus, also rare, which was identified separately in 2014. Both the Bourbon and Heartland viruses are linked to the lone star tick and are potentially deadly.

Among tick-borne illnesses, Rocky Mountain spotted fever remains one of the deadliest.

Although alpha-gal is not a nationally notifiable condition at the CDC, the agency’s studies still found suspected cases rose sharply after 2010, with roughly 15,000 new positive tests a year and as many as 450,000 people possibly affected.

​For example, cases of alpha-gal increased 100-fold from 2013 to 2024. Nearly one in four adults in hard-hit southern states have positive antibodies to the allergen, according to a study from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Emergency room visits for tick bites reached their highest level in a decade in many parts of the country, according to an April CDC release.

​However, Galardi said more people may be going to emergency rooms as news of tick-borne illnesses spreads, potentially affecting the data.

​”It’s heightened awareness, but also a very real increase in the number of cases we’re seeing and ticks,” she said.

“I think more people are hearing horror stories of people that have been bitten by ticks, and they’re like, ‘[I’d] better get treatment.’”

Capitol Concern

Virginia Congressman Morgan Griffith was diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome about 15 years ago after a visit to his allergist.

​Griffith described getting delayed stomach upset hours, even days later after eating, and feeling like he might have the flu.

​“I have a mild case. There are people out there who are really, really suffering. I cannot eat meat, but I’m okay with dairy,” he told The Epoch Times.

He doesn’t recall getting sick after a specific tick bite, but he’s frequently outdoors.

​“I’m an amateur naturalist. I’m always out in the woods,” he said.​

Griffith is one of several congressional leaders focused on tackling the nation’s tick problem, including through increased funding for research and treatment.

​The 2026 reauthorization for the Kay Hagan Tick Act was passed by the House and Senate, and is awaiting the president’s signature.

The legislation was named for former Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.). The 66-year-old lawmaker died in October 2019 from complications of Powassan virus, a rare tick-borne illness she contracted a few years earlier.

Griffith is also a cosponsor of the Alpha-gal Allergen Inclusion Act, which would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to classify alpha-gal as a major food allergen so that food packages would identify it in meat and other products.​

After taking a magnesium supplement that triggered a reaction, Griffith found out the hard way that some supplements use animal derived coatings that can be dangerous for alpha-gal sufferers.

Hamburgers and Hives

In Columbia, Fiesta Mexico owner Roy Ayala doesn’t blink when he’s asked to fix chicken in a separate container so it won’t come in contact with the grill where red meat was cooked.

​Pennington is just one of his customers with alpha-gal. Missy Harvey and Heather Coomer are two others who live in the area.

​Between the three of them, they know dozens of people who have come down with alpha-gal.

Pennington remembers getting really sick after eating a burger and a brat at a barbecue just before she was diagnosed.

”My hands itched, my throat itched. It felt like bugs were crawling in my hair,” Pennington said. “The palms of my hands and my feet would turn blood red, and they would itch me so bad.”

Besides beef, other red meats such as pork, lamb, and venison trigger reactions in most people with the allergy. Some people can’t even be around where red meat is cooked or barbecued. Others can’t have products containing gelatin, milk, or lard.

​Even glue used in nail salons, and lanolin-based lip balms or lotions can cause an allergic response. The women say they have become label detectives and learned to investigate “natural ingredients” in everything from toothpaste to deodorant.

‘Order the Chicken’

Coomer, who was diagnosed about 15 years ago, experienced a severe allergic reaction that almost took her life.

She told The Epoch Times that she mourns her carefree life before alpha-gal.

“Right before Thanksgiving is when I got diagnosed, and it just broke my heart because as y'all all know, I love to eat,” Coomer said.

“They say stay away from red meat and dairy, and you’ll be fine,” she said. “But it’s so much more than that, and doctors need to understand that.”

The women say outsiders rarely grasp what the illness has cost them—a limited diet, hives, potentially life-threatening reactions, and being dismissed as complainers.

“People don’t believe you, and they think you’re crazy,” said Harvey, who was diagnosed in 2014.

Harvey recalled how hard it was to eat out safely at a restaurant and said that her meticulous approach to dining out exasperated her church-going mom at first.

“Me and Mama would go out to eat, and I would ask 100 questions over the menu, and she’d go, ‘Order the damn chicken! All you can eat is the chicken.’”