‘Spreading like wildfire’: How one Kentucky county is grappling with a national tick-borne scourge

In Owen County, Kentucky, a rising wave of alpha-gal syndrome, an allergic reaction to a sugar molecule in mammal products triggered by lone star tick bites, has spread through entire families and neighborhoods, according to residents and a local doctor. Family doctor Larry Johnson said cases went from essentially zero to one or two diagnoses a week in a county of about 11,000 people.

Reactions range from stomach distress and hives to life-threatening allergic responses, sometimes delayed for hours after eating red meat or products containing mammal-derived gelatin. Kentucky began requiring alpha-gal cases be reported last year, and the four-county health district serving the area saw tick-borne illness rates jump from 83 per 100,000 people in 2024 to over 300 in 2025 and 2026.

Local residents, including a volunteer fire chief and a beef cattle farmer who can no longer eat his own product, describe adapting daily routines around the risk. Doctors remain uncertain whether the surge reflects more ticks, more awareness, or both.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.