Outrage as scientists push to create ticks that spread red-meat allergies: ‘Isn’t this biological terrorism?’
daily mail

A recently unearthed study has set off a tidal wave of outrage after scientists claimed it was ‘morally’ justifiable to infect people with a virus making them allergic to meat.

Researchers Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth from Western Michigan University published an inflammatory paper in 2025, making the case that society had a moral ‘duty’ to spread ticks that were infected with or engineered to carry alpha-gal syndrome (AGS).

AGS is a real medical condition transmitted to humans through tick bites, causing victims to suffer allergic reactions when eating red meat, including beef, pork and lamb, dairy and other products derived from mammals.

The symptoms can range from a mild case of hives or stomach pain to severe and even life-threatening cases of anaphylaxis – where blood pressure suddenly drops and the person becomes unable to breathe as their airways swell up.

Crutchfield and Hereth claimed that it was morally wrong to eat meat because of the suffering animals endure and the environmental damage that the meat industry allegedly causes.

They argued that the only reason society should not be spreading ticks to infect people with AGS today is that scientists do not currently have an easy and effective way to do it on a large scale.

However, they added: ‘But it is feasible to genetically edit the disease-carrying capacity of ticks. If we are right, then today we have the obligation to research and develop the capacity to proliferate tickborne AGS and, tomorrow, carry out that proliferation.’

Their main findings were that promoting genetically modified ticks to spread AGS would make the world better and help people become more ‘virtuous’ by avoiding meat.

They also claimed that this process would not violate anyone’s rights, despite proposing to intentionally infect the population with a life-threatening infection.