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.
When many people see a big, beautiful pile of colorful autumn leaves, it feels like an open invitation to dive in. The scene evokes joy, nostalgia, and the simple thrill of childhood.
But for Isabel Rose, it brings up something very different. It reminds her of a moment that marked the beginning of her lifelong struggle with Lyme disease.
What others see as innocent fun, she now views with alarm.
Ticks thrive in damp, shaded environments close to the ground. Leaf piles, tall grass, and wooded edges are prime habitats for them. Children playing in these areas are at increased risk, often unaware that a single tick bite can lead to years of misery.
For Isabel, what began as a carefree childhood leap into a leaf pile became the start of a medical nightmare.
Isabel is now a writer, Lyme disease advocate, and founder of Mothers Against Lyme, a support network for families affected by congenital and pediatric Lyme. She also serves on the board of Project Lyme, a national nonprofit.
In a recent essay published on her Substack, Isabel shares the story of how a tick bite at age 8 led to decades of misdiagnosed symptoms, chronic illness, and eventually, the discovery that both she and her children had Lyme disease and co-infections.
Her experience is a powerful reminder of the importance of tick awareness. Ignoring the risks can be hazardous to yourself–and future generations.
While ticks can’t fly on their own, I’ve seen them be blown in wind. I’ve also heard a story of a person walking through the forest out east where tick populations are high. They heard what sounded like rain drops falling, but it wasn’t rain. It was ticks dropping from trees!
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.”
Health officials issue warning as dangerous disease reaches ‘endemic levels’: ‘It’s not if you’re going to get it, it’s when’
Katie Dupere
A region in West Virginia is experiencing “endemic levels” of Lyme disease. It’s a clear example of how warming global temperatures are transforming some regions into breeding grounds for diseases.
What’s happening?
Ohio County — which has a population of about 40,000 — is experiencing an alarming number of Lyme disease cases. As of mid-September, there were almost 300 reported cases. Health officials warn the illness is now so widespread that cases are no longer investigated but simply recorded.
“It’s not if you’re going to get it, it’s when you’re going to get it,” Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department Administrator Howard Gamble told local news affiliate WTOV 9.
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Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks. It can cause fever, fatigue, joint pain, and a characteristic “bull’s-eye” rash. If left untreated, Lyme may lead to serious complications affecting the heart, joints, and nervous system.
Ohio County officials attribute the surge to unstable environmental conditions and human proximity to animal habitats that support tick populations. And those factors can be directly tied to rising global temperatures.
Spring and summer are peak tick seasons — but health officials warn cases are not expected to decrease significantly in the fall. (See link for article)
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**Comment**
Sadly, another article pushing the ‘climate change’ agenda which has been proven by independent research to be a mute point regarding ticks and disease proliferation, yet a lie is halfway around the world before the truth is still putting on its shoes.
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 