Massachusetts Makes AGS a Reportable Illness

State will start tracking cases of tick-borne mammal product allergy

Published March 23, 2026

Governor Maura Healey (at the podium) announced that alpha-gal syndrome will become a reportable condition in Massachusetts at the Frances A. Crane Wildlife Management Area in North Falmouth. Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein (leftmost person standing) spoke about the importance of collecting data on the emerging condition.

Starting April 1, Massachusetts health care providers and labs will be required to alert the state when they encounter cases of the tick-borne allergy alpha-gal syndrome.

Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to mammal products that can be caused by a lone star tick bite. It’s been on the rise on Cape Cod and the Islands, to the point where it’s caught the attention of the governor’s office.

At a press conference in North Falmouth last week, Governor Maura Healey announced that alpha-gal syndrome will be considered a reportable condition for at least the next year. The designation will make it easier for the state to collect data on alpha-gal syndrome, which at this time has no treatment.

“As the global life sciences capital of the world, I hope that somehow our data and our collection can be used with science and research right now in our state to eradicate this once and for all,” Healey said.

Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein was also at the event. Until recently, he said, there were no lone star ticks in Massachusetts. But climate change has made Massachusetts hospitable to lone star ticks, named for the single white dot on their backs.

“Warmer temperatures, shorter winters [and] shifting ecosystems all have allowed the lone star tick to crawl—literally crawl—northward,” he said. “We’re seeing that expansion now on Cape Cod, on Martha’s Vineyard and on Nantucket. And increasingly, we’re seeing it in the mainland.”

Barnstable County has been working closely with public health partners on the Vineyard, where alpha-gal syndrome has emerged as a significant concern.

“By taking this data-driven, proactive approach, we are doing more than just simply responding to an emerging public health challenge,” Goldstein said. “We are helping people prevent alpha-gal syndrome.”

Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule that is in most mammals, but not humans. It’s also in the saliva of lone star ticks. When someone is bitten by a lone star tick, the alpha-gal in the tick’s saliva can get into the person’s bloodstream. The body’s immune system can see the presence of alpha-gal as a threat, causing an allergic reaction that is triggered when people are exposed to alpha-gal in the future by consuming mammal products. That can include meat and dairy, as well as non-food products, such as some medications that contain mammal additives or stabilizers. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

I will refrain from my regular diatribe, but ticks are impervious to weather:

Researchers and the Media are beholden to Big Pharma and government – pretty much their main funders. They understand who butters their bread and that they must toe the lie to get those hotly contested research dollars. This requires them to regurgitate the accepted narrative, even though it’s been proven wrong, again and again.

It’s now been exposed that billionaires under the guise of philanthropy have financed research portals to control scientific discourse and that a carefully planned 20 year architecture is behind ‘pandemics’ as a business model.

Big money is behind the faulty climate change narrative and it seems researchers care more about their paychecks than facts.

Just as it’s far more likely that geoengineering is behind deleterious weather conditions, not to mention health issues, it’s also far more likely that the government’s deployment of radioactive lone star ticks in Virginia have more to do with tick dispersement than the weather.

Lone star ticks have been found in Minnesota, Wisconsin and up into Maine.

Then, there’s the very real issue that ticks are not the sole perp in this drama:

More on AGS:

Madison Area Lyme Support Group