Researchers confirm new Rickettsia species found in dogs
By Tracy Peake, NC State
Researchers from North Carolina State University have confirmed that a species of Rickettsia first seen in dogs in 2018 is a new species of bacteria.
The new species, dubbed Rickettsia finnyi, is associated with symptoms similar to those of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) in dogs, but has not yet been found in humans.
Rickettsia pathogens are categorized into four groups; of those, spotted-fever group Rickettsia (which is transmitted by ticks) is the most commonly known and contains the most identified species. There are more than 25 species of tick-borne, spotted-fever group Rickettsia species worldwide, with R. rickettsii – which causes RMSF – being one of the most virulent and dangerous.
Symptoms of RMSF in dogs and people are similar, including fever, lethargy and symptoms related to vascular inflammation, like swelling, rash and pain.
“We first reported the novel species of Rickettsia in a 2020 case series involving three dogs,” says Barbara Qurollo, associate research professor at NC State and corresponding author of the new study.
“Since then we received samples from an additional 16 dogs – primarily from the Southeast and Midwest – that were infected with the same pathogen. We were also able to culture the new species from the blood of one of the naturally infected dogs in that group.”
To name a new Rickettsial bacterial species, the bacteria must be cultured, its genome sequenced and published, and the cultures must be deposited in two biobanks so that other researchers can also study it. Qurollo’s group successfully cultured the new species from the infected dog.
Culturing a difficult pathogen
“Rickettsia species are difficult to culture because these organisms grow inside of cells,” Qurollo says. “While we haven’t been able to confirm which tick species transmit it yet, we think it may be associated with the lone star tick, because a research group in Oklahoma found R. finnyi DNA in a lone star tick.”
The researchers named the new species Rickettsia finnyi, after Finny, the first dog they found it in.
“By naming it after an individual dog, we wanted to honor all companion dogs that have contributed to the discovery of new pathogens that could cause serious illness in both dogs and humans,” Qurollo says.
The lone star tick, notorious for spreading disease and causing a red meat allergy called alpha-gal syndrome, has long plagued the eastern United States.
Now, UC Davis researchers warn it may be edging closer to establishing itself in California.
Their study uncovered seventy-six lone star ticks reported across the state, including recent finds in the Bay Area and San Clemente. While field teams in 2024 and 2025 didn’t recover any during surveillance, climate models show coastal California offers prime conditions for the species.
Experts say the tick isn’t officially established yet, but the risk is real. With climate change and increased movement of animals and people, scientists caution that Californians should stay vigilant, check for ticks after outdoor activities, and report unusual sightings.
Sadly, climate clap trap has taken hold in research because a political tribalism has taken over due to highly competitive, but limited research dollars to be vied for. “Science” has been wrong about global warming for over 50 years but refuses to admit fault or reform.
Regarding tick and disease proliferation, independent research has already proven the climate is a mute point as ticks are highly ecoadaptive, yet the narrative continues on like a bad penny. And nary a word is ever mentioned about our own government experimenting on ticks and dropping them out of airplanes.
Before you read the following article, it bears repeating that researchers and doctors are making a CAUSAL connection between lone star tick bites and Alpha Gal Syndrome (AGS) meat allergy despite the fact there are people with AGS who were not bitten by the tick.
Further, journalist Jon Rappoport takes this even further by stating the very same type of causal link used for AGS is not accepted at all for ‘vaccines’ causing subsequent injuries.
Both conditions are self reported and in the following story, the patient remembers being bitten by chiggersnot a tick…..
First death reported from meat allergy caused by tick bite
After months of investigation, researchers confirmed that a New Jersey man died of a tickborne allergy called alpha-gal syndrome after eating a hamburger.
A 47-year-old airline pilot from New Jersey is the first person known to have died from alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy caused by a tick bite.
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine publicly reported the cause of death Wednesdayafter months of investigation. Their findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.
The man’s death had previously been seen as a mystery, since medical examinations showed no evidence of a heart attack or other life-threatening issues.
According to the researchers, the man started feeling sick four hours after consuming a hamburger at a barbecue in September 2024. When he returned home, he was well enough to mow the lawn and read the paper. But shortly after 7:30 p.m. that day, the man’s son found him unconscious on the bathroom floor with vomit around him. An autopsy ruled that his death was sudden and unexplained.
Two weeks earlier, the man had become ill after eating a steak dinner on a camping trip with his wife and children. The researchers said he woke up at 2 a.m. with severe diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain, and later told one of his sons that he thought he was going to die. However, he and his wife were uncertain of what had happened, so they decided not to consult a doctor.
“The tragedy is that they didn’t think of that episode as anaphylaxis, and therefore didn’t connect it to the beef at the time,” said Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, an allergist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine who discovered alpha-gal syndrome and diagnosed the New Jersey man’s case.
(See link for article and newsvideo)
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**Comment**
The cause of the allergic reaction did not show up on his autopsy.
But when a family friend who was a doctor talked to the man’s wife, they wondered if it could be AGS. Another doctor who knew the family friend worked with the wife for blood testing. The highest level for anaphylaxis this doctor had ever seen on a survivor is 100. The deceased’s level was 2,000.
A few interesting points:
According to the good doctor, food allergy deaths are really rare and happen in people with underlying asthma or ‘some other kind of medical condition.’ The good doctor didn’t mention ‘vaccines’, but since the deceased was a pilot and they were mandated to get the experimental clot shots, I’m betting he got it – and that indeed could have been his precipitating ‘medical condition,’ or the big fat elephant in the room everyone blithely ignores.
The good doctor said a recent bite could boost AGS. The wife said the deceased had been bitten by chiggers, however, researchers now suspect the bites came from lone star tick larvae.
The article makes sure to only push the fear narrative that it’s solely ticks, and roving deer due to climate change, completely ignoring the fact people get AGS without any tick bite whatsoever, implicating ‘vaccines,’ and the fact our own government has been working on ticks for decades and dropping them from airplanes.
This frightening injection for cows and scary additives for their food is to curb the methane they produce. All for profit of course – Gates’ profit. Just when we hoped Gates would disappear from our sight, he’s back with more schemes for our food. He just had a secret meeting with President Trump and then came back two weeks later for another. Something monstrous is definitely brewing in the kitchen.
Gates has his fingers in so many pies it’s hard to keep them all straight. The many pies include, but aren’t limited to:
Florida Governor Slams Proposal to Engineer Meat Allergies in Humans to ‘Save the Planet’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized a bioethicist’s video suggesting humans could be engineered to develop a red meat allergy, linking the idea to the World Economic Forum and World Health Organization. “Genetically engineering humans to become allergic to meat because some elites think people eat ‘too much’ of it is insane,” DeSantis wrote.
October 20, 2025This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week publicly rejected the notion that humans could be engineered to develop a red meat allergy as a way to curb meat consumption and protect the environment — an idea he linked to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
On X, DeSantis posted a 2016 video of Matthew Liao, a professor of bioethics at New York University and director of its Center for Bioethics. Liao tells his audience that ticks could be used to spread allergies that make humans unable to tolerate red meat — an idea that has been repeated by other bioethicists.
“People eat too much meat. And if they were to cut down on their consumption of meat, then it would actually really help the planet,” Liao said in the video. “There’s this thing called the lone star tick, where if it bites you, you will become allergic to meat. So, that’s something we can do through human engineering.”
DeSantis said Liao’s statements are “an example of why entities like the WEF and WHO are persona non grata” in Florida.
“Genetically engineering humans to become allergic to meat because some elites think people eat ‘too much’ of it is insane,” DeSantis wrote.
Tim Hinchliffe, editor of The Sociable, said that while Liao’s comments were not new — the video is from an almost 10-year-old talk at the World Science Festival — DeSantis’ remarks were significant.
“Although he’s slow to the game, at least he’s noticing,” Hinchliffe said.
Liao “has been talking about making people allergic to meat for over a decade, going back to his TED Talk 12 years ago, in 2013,” Hinchliffe said.
During that talk, Liao said, “Just as some people are naturally intolerant to milk or crayfish, like myself, we could artificially induce mild intolerance to meat by stimulating our immune system against common bovine proteins.”
“This isn’t dietary advice — it’s social engineering,” Ji said. “Unelected global organizations have no business dictating what free people eat, especially when they’re demonizing traditional foods that have sustained human health for millennia.”
Kendall Mackintosh, a board-certified nutrition specialist, said such claims aren’t “just about climate,” but are also centered around “control and consolidation.”
“Real, regenerative farmingsupports independence and local economies. Centralizing food systems through synthetic or lab-grown products benefits corporations, not families,” Mackintosh said.
Ji agreed. He said such proposals are indicative of “the merger of biotechnology and behavioral control.” He added:
“The war on meat has never been about climate. It’s about control — consolidating food production under centralized, patented, technology-dependent systems.
“Meat represents everything the global technocracy fears: decentralized production, nutritional independence and cultural traditions that resist standardization. When people can raise their own food, they’re harder to control. The WEF understands this perfectly.”
Recent paper suggests spreading meat allergy to humans is a moral obligation
A paper published earlier this month in the journal Bioethics proposed using the lone star tick to spread alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), “a condition whose only effect is the creation of a severe but nonfatal red meat allergy.”
In the paper, Western Michigan University bioethics professors Parker Crutchfield, Ph.D., and Blake Hereth, Ph.D., argued that “if eating meat is morally impermissible, then efforts to prevent the spread of tickborne AGS are also morally impermissible.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when it bites, the lone star tick transmits the alpha-gal sugar molecule into the human bloodstream, leading to a red meat allergy. Consuming red meat after being infected could result in life-threatening anaphylaxis.
The paper’s authors present what they called the “Convergence Argument.” If a specific action “prevents the world from becoming a significantly worse place, doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, and promotes virtuous action or character,” then it becomes a moral obligation to perform this action, they said.
According to the authors, the use of AGS to spread a red meat allergy to humans meets these criteria. However, they acknowledged ethical obstacles: few people would likely volunteer for the tick bite, and forcing it on people would raise questions of bodily autonomy and freedom.
The authors told The College Fix in an August email that their paper does not constitute an endorsement of spreading AGS to humans, but offers a hypothetical framework raising ethical and philosophical questions.
Mackintosh questioned this denial. “Calling it a ‘thought experiment’ doesn’t make it any less disturbing. The idea that inducing an allergy or harming human health could somehow serve a moral purpose shows just how far detached some parts of academia have become from basic human ethics,” she said.
“The fact that this was even published tells you how normalized these anti-human, anti-food narratives are becoming under the guise of ‘ethics,’” Mackintosh added.
Ji said the paper raises questions about bodily autonomy.
“This is about far more than food, it’s about whether human beings retain sovereignty over their own bodies, or whether that sovereignty can be overridden by those who believe they know better. The answer to that question will determine whether we remain free,” he said.
Mackintosh questioned the authors’ claim that lone star tick bites “only” lead to AGS.
AGS “can cause severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, and can completely alter someone’s diet and quality of life,” Mackintosh said. “The suggestion of using ticks or any biological vector to intentionally spread an allergy is beyond unethical. It’s dangerous, unpredictable and medically reckless.”
A 2023 CDC report said AGS cases were on the rise in the U.S.
DeSantis previously outlawed sale of lab-grown meat in Florida
While DeSantis didn’t directly address the paper or AGS in his X posts, he has consistently spoken out against efforts to shift people away from red meat and toward alternatives such as lab-grown meat and insects.
Last year, DeSantis signed legislation prohibiting the sale of lab-grown meat in Florida. According to a press release, the law aims “to stop the World Economic Forum’s goal of forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects,” which a 2021 WEF article characterized as an “overlooked” source of protein.”
“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis said at the time.
Joseph Sansone, Ph.D., a psychotherapist who sued DeSantis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to prohibit mRNA vaccines in Florida, said that while he has been “litigating against DeSantis for over a year and a half to stop mRNA injections,” he agrees with DeSantis on this issue.
“DeSantis is calling out something that many Americans feel — they don’t want global organizations or unelected bodies deciding what they can or can’t eat,” Sansone said.
Mackintosh said lab-grown meat raises questions about potential health risks.
“There are questions about contamination risks, the use of antibiotics or growth media, nutrient content, and even the true environmental impact once scaled up. It’s also ultra-processed — far from the whole, nutrient-dense foods our bodies were designed to thrive on,” she said.
“Many lab-grown meat companies are using immortalized cell lines — cells that are capable of continuously dividing and growing in a manner disturbingly similar to cancer cells,” Ji said. There is a “complete absence of long-term safety studies” for such products.
Scientists have raised similar concerns about human consumption of insects. The exoskeletons of many insects contain chitin, a natural material that can trigger an allergic reaction in humans. Some studies suggest that humans cannot digest chitin, while other studies suggest humans “don’t digest it well.”
WEF suggests consuming alternative meats will ‘save the planet’
In a 2019 video, the WEF suggested that in the not-too-distant future, humans would be allowed to consume only “one beef burger, two portions of fish and one or two eggs per week” to “save the planet.”
That year, the WEF published a white paper calling for “a transformation in the global system for protein provision” to meet climate-related targets.
Mackintosh said corporate interests are behind the push for “alternative” meats.
“The biggest winners in the lab-grown meat push are large food conglomerates, biotech companies and venture capital investors who own the patents and production technology. Small farmers and ranchers — the backbone of our food system — lose. This is about creating dependence, not sustainability,” she said.
Ji agreed. “Follow the money. Biotech corporations and their investors stand to profit massively from patents and market control,” he said.
Liao suggested chemically inducing empathy, making kids smaller
DeSantis and others have suggested a link between Liao and the WEF, including a claim that Liao’s 2012 co-authored paper, “Human Engineering and Climate Change,” which argued that “human engineering deserves further consideration in the debate about climate change,” was the subject of a discussion at the WEF’s 2021 annual meeting.
Hinchliffe noted that the WEF “does have a habit of scrubbing what it considers to be negative publicity from its website.” However, whether or not there is a direct connection between Liao and the WEF, Liao “is definitely aligned” with WEF policies, he said.
“Academic papers proposing disease vectors to manipulate behavior aren’t harmless philosophy — they’re rehearsals. They move the Overton window, normalize the abnormal and provide intellectual scaffolding for future atrocities. The field of bioethics has become less about protecting human dignity and more about rationalizing its violation.”
Two researchers from Western Michigan University have proposed just that in a paper ominously titled “Beneficial Bloodsucking.” Published by the journal Bioethics in July, the paper argues that intentionally spreading alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) could be ethically defensible, and perhaps even necessary, because it reduces animal suffering and combats climate change. As the authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, put it:
“Because promoting tickborne AGS prevents something bad from happening, doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, and promotes virtuous action or character, it follows that promoting tickborne AGS is strongly pro tanto (‘to that extent’) morally obligatory.”
Really? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), AGS “is a serious, potentially life-threatening allergy,” affecting “as many as 450,000 people.”
“Whatever excuse they may concoct to justify it,” notes Cameron English, director of biosciences at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), “deliberately releasing ticks into the environment with the intention of making people sick is unethical because it interferes with the proper functioning of their bodies.” English adds that “Crutchfield and Hereth want to infect millions of people with AGS precisely because ‘it is extremely difficult for most human beings to … forego acting on their desire to eat meat.’”
(See link for article)
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**Comment**
If you remember, a WEF goon has already stated this previously as a solution for ‘climate change’, another very contentious subject, with many researchers stating the entire narrative is a scam. Last year a peer-reviewed study showed that CO2 emissions in the earth’s atmosphere can not cause ‘global warming.’
And just to be clear, an expert states:
“I assert there is no connection whatsoever between climate change and CO2– it’s all a crock of crap, in my opinion.” ~ Dr. John Clauser, 2022 Nobel physics laureate
Please note just where the ‘climate change’ agenda can lead…..
purposely infecting people so they are forced to eliminate all animal products from their life
The the ignorantly self-righteous statements by these scientists is unbelievably staggering:
promoting AGS prevents something bad from happening
doesn’t violate anyone’s rights
promotes virtuous action or character
Huh?
Do they even consider the possibility that people man become infected with other life-altering pathogens which are often in ticks? As it stands, patients must go to specialized doctors even now to even receive proper treatment and must pay out of pocket. Imagine a whopping does of AGS on top of it all!
two independent studies found intensely noisyoffshore wind projects cause hearing loss in marine mammals, turtles, and fish and compromise their ability to navigate, avoid danger, detect predators, and find prey
go here to watch an informative video on the staggering amount of energy and resources required to build a single wind turbine. According to this, there are 75,633 turbines covering 45 states plus Guam and Puerto Rico. Recently there’s been a slow down due to defects that according to manufacturers can affect up to 30% of turbines which can cause anything from fires to complete breakdowns where they fall to the ground
elevated humpback whale mortalities have occurred along the Atlantic coast from Maine through Florida coinciding with offshore operations
California serves as a prime example of a state that requires conventional energy to keep the fantasy afloat, yet proponents argue this will all be well given more time, more subsidies, more magical thinking, and more pixie dust
under the guise of reducing “methane emissions,” 13 WEF-infiltrated nations have agreed to engineer global famine by abolishing agricultural production and shutting down all farms to ‘save the planet.’ The U.S. is one of those nations.
globalists’ fraudulent solutions to the purported climate crisis is Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing. A company’s ESG score is supposed to tell investors how socially conscious the company is, but recent scandals have revealed ESG is a scam.
If you wondered where the ‘climate’ narrative is going to go, wonder no more.
You don’t even need a tick bite to get this. To my knowledge, the only reason ticks have been blamed at all is because certain tick’s saliva contains trace quantities of a sugar, alpha-gal, a known human irritant that many researchers and clinicians believeinduces the dangerous allergic responses that are the hallmark of AGS. But, just because you believe something, doesn’t make it true.
Not everyone bitten by a tick containing AGS will develop AGS and not everyone who carries antibodies to AGS will get AGS, and a positive test does not always mean a person has been exposed to alpha-gal. Confused yet?
The number of lab-confirmed cases grew from 12 in 2009 to over 34,000 in 2019. The question to ask yourself is, “what has changed since 2009?” One answer: the number of ‘vaccines’ given has increased dramatically. Some other possible ideas:
Individuals who tend to follow the advice of mainstream nutritionists likely find the on-again, off-again demonization of red meat rather confusing.1 Weston A. Price Foundation members know better, recognizing that red meat—when obtained from healthy animals raised on healthy farms—is not only innocent of the many crimes of which it is often accused but is a nutrient-rich powerhouse.2
But what if you are a nutritionally informed red meat lover—enjoying animal fats, organs and bone broth as well as varied cuts of meat— and you suddenly cannot eat anything red-meat-related without developing hives, rashes, excruciating stomach pain or life-threatening anaphylaxis? In the past, allergy experts considered red meat allergy to be unusual,3 but by 2012, a red meat allergy dubbed “alpha-gal syndrome” or simply “alpha-gal”—named after a carbohydrate molecule (galactose-alpha-1,3- galactose) present in non-primate mammalian meat and high-fat dairy products4—had made it into the pages of Science magazine, which colorfully described it as “a carnivore or BBQ lover’s worst nightmare.”5
Since then, the number of individuals allergic to red meat—both adults and children—has continued to climb.6 In the U.S., one specialist sees five new patients a week and reports having treated nine hundred individuals over the past decade.7 The same trend is apparent in numerous other countries—including various European nations, Japan, South Korea, Panama, Brazil, the Ivory Coast and South Africa7—with the result that a lot more carnivores are coming face to face with their “worst nightmare.”
A MODERN MALADY
As medical historians remind us, allergies are a “modern malady.”8 Hay fever became a recognized condition only in 1870,9 and the term “allergy” did not come along until 1906, following on the heels of French physiologist (and eugenicist) Charles Richet’s 1902 invention of the term “anaphylaxis.”10
Around that time, injected antitoxins and vaccines—new on the scene—were causing “new diseases and strange reactions that physicians could not explain.”10 Observing these “hypersensitivity reactions” that seemed to involve the “collision of antigen and antibody,” particularly with repeated injections, Austrian pediatrician Clemens von Pirquet coined the term “serum sickness” and later elaborated the concept of allergy.10 (See link for article)
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SUMMARY of article info on Alpha Gal Syndrome (AGS):
It wasn’t until 2009 that simultaneous case reports of American, Australian, and French patients presented with immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, yet defied bedrock tenants of normal food allergies. These patients had delayed hit or miss allergic reactions.
Normally food allergies are caused by proteins; however alpha-gal is a carbohydrate.
Alpha Gal was zeroed in on due to a previously described severe and sometimes fatal hypersensitivity reaction in up to 20% of patients who developed IgE antibodies specific for AG after receiving a GMO cancer drug called cetuximab produced in mouse cell culture in with AG is present.
French authors stated the diagnostic value of alpha-gal IgE antibodies “has yet to be clarified” and that a finding of positive antibodies generally “has limited predictive value for the characteristics or severity of this allergy,” yet most have embraced the notion that IgE of AG is at the root of the cetuximab and red meat allergy.
Ticks offer a perfect environmental scapegoat trigger to explain the cause of IgE response to AG, despite researchers admitting they don’t understand the mechanism of action.
A close reading of a 2009 Australian paper concludes:
History of tick bites in preceding 6 months is far from unusual as participants lived in endemic areas.
Of the 25 patients, one reported a tick bite 6 months after the onset of meat allergy. One in 5 in the U.S. reported no tick bite at all. In Switzerland, only 1 out of four had a history of tick bite and the authors speculated that there may be other ways of sensitization.
While the Australian researchers inferred that the perp is 1 species of tick, they couldn’t prove it as no lab method exists to check! In the U.S. and Europe, researchers confidently blame different ticks as the sole perps despite meat allergies occurring ‘well outside’ the areas populated by these ticks.
Researchers have never been able to confirm that something in tick saliva is responsible for AG antibodies.
The article rightly questions if researchers have properly considered other explanations since reactions also include gelatin, medications, vaccines, cosmetics, deodorant, etc. – not just red meat.
A website for those with allergies singles out gelatin-containing vaccines as a prominent suspect. Gelatin is used as a stabilizer in 11 vaccines in the U.S.
Further damning vaccines is a wealth of Japanese documentation on the connection between anaphylactic reactions and a strong causal relationship between gelatin-containing DTaP vaccine, anti-gelatin IgE production, and the risk of anaphylaxis with live viral vaccines containing a larger amount of gelation like the MMR and the MMRV.
Historically, studies have also linked bovine serum albumin (BSA), widely used in cell cultures that produce vaccines, to meat allergies.
The comments section of a 2015 People’s Pharmacy show about AGS is filled with patients reporting AGS after getting a vaccine.
Clear labeling is not required by the FDA regarding if an ingredient is sourced from mammals. The list includes:
the clotting drug heparin,
pancreatic enzymes
thyroid supplements
intravenous fluids
suppositories
magnesium stearate
some toothpaste, lotions, sunscreens, antibiotics and whey protein powders
Interestingly, he initially reacted to red meat (diarrhea 3-6 hours after ingestion) but this particular symptom went away. There’s an obvious chance antibiotics caused it or perhaps treatment helped and strengthened his immune system enough to fight it off. We will never know for sure. Regarding vaccination history, he received 5 types of vaccines until he turned five. Thankfully, by then I had done my homework and discontinued ALL vaccines. Even though he has received far fewer vaccines than most children today, damage could very well be done.
It would be extremely interesting to determine if anyone that is unvaccinated has AGS.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 