NSW Inquest examining whether meat allergy caused by Tick Bites Caused teenagers death: Pittwater has Highest Number of people living with this allergy
The devastated mother of teenager Jeremy Webb has revealed a potential new reason behind his tragic death.
The 16-year-old boy may have died from a red meat allergy that can be triggered by tick bites, a coronial inquest has been told.
Jeremy was on a camping trip with three friends at MacMasters Beach on the Central Coast on June 10, 2022, when he ate a dinner of beef sausages.
By 11pm, he reported having difficulty breathing and collapsed on his way to get help from a nearby adult.
His friends tried to resuscitate him with CPR but Jeremy passed away at Gosford Hospital an hour and a half later.
Jeremy's cause of death was initially determined to be from asthma, but a coronial inquest is now probing whether his death was caused by the sausages after he was posthumously diagnosed with mammalian meat allergy.
Previous tick bites can trigger a mammalian meat allergy, which can manifest as stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, hives or swelling, or escalate to anaphylaxis. Jeremy had presented with symptoms of this allergy after eating red meat prior to June 2022, his mother related.
An allergy expert told the inquest it can take up to five hours to detect the allergic reaction after eating red meat.
"But when it starts, it evolves rapidly. So people go from zero to 100," Associate Professor Sheryl van Nunen said on Monday November 17.
Associate Professor Nunen believed Mr Webb had a mammalian meat allergy from childhood, based on his rapidly onset asthma, his history of tick bites and his record of allergy symptoms after eating red meat.
Experts agreed Mr Webb died of a combination of either a severe allergic reaction or anaphylaxis and an acute asthmatic episode, the inquest was told.
The inquest will examine the adequacy of Mr Webb's medical treatment before his death, the role anaphylaxis played in his death, and whether it could have been prevented by a more thorough investigation into his conditions.
Jeremy's mother said there was no one person to blame for her son's life being cut so tragically short.
"I think it's just a combination of things that intersected together that no one could actually have predicted," Myfanwy Webb said
"Unfortunately, there's so many times when things should have happened and they didn't."
“When I first suspected mammalian meat allergy, I did look into it, but there wasn’t much information back then,” she said.
“I sort of saw it as a food intolerance, not an allergy that can kill you from anaphylaxis.”
Ms Webb believes that if Jeremy’s cause of death was incorrectly determined, there could be more fatal cases of the condition.
“I think Jeremy would be so proud of this inquest about his death,” she said.
“If it saves one more life, then that’s a win, a huge win.”
Mammalian meat allergy, also known as alpha-gal syndrome, is a tick-induced condition, and is a potentially life-threatening allergy to mammalian meats such as beef, pork and lamb, and sometimes in gelatine and fats.
Reactions typically develop between two and 10 hours after consumption, with symptoms ranging from abdominal cramping and vomiting, to severe allergic reactions and anaphylaxis.
If the inquest found that his red meat allergy was a factor in his death, Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia believes his death could be the first of its kind in Australia.
Ms Webb told the ABC that from the age of two, her son was repeatedly bitten by ticks while camping in bushland on the NSW Central Coast.
US Man First Documented Death
A New Jersey man is believed to be the first documented death from alpha-gal syndrome, a meat allergy triggered by tick bites. The man, a 47-year-old airline pilot, was otherwise healthy, according to a case study [1] from researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Hackensack Meridian Health in New Jersey.
In the US Summer of 2024, he went camping with his wife and children and was bitten by dozens of tiny seed ticks. A few hours after eating beef steak for dinner, the man awoke with abdominal discomfort, which later led to diarrhoea and vomiting.
He recovered enough to go on a hike the next day.
Two weeks later, the man and his wife went to a BBQ near their home, where he ate a hamburger at around 3pm. After the BBQ, the man went home and mowed the lawn for an hour. He still felt fine when his wife left the house at 7pm.
But at 7:20pm he went to the bathroom, and ten minutes later their son was on the phone saying: “Dad is getting sick again.”
Moments later, he found his father unconscious on the bathroom floor with “vomit around him,” according to the report. He quickly called 911, and once paramedics arrived, they began CPR.
They tried to revive him for two hours, including during the drive to hospital, but after 10pm he was pronounced dead.
His wife, after the autopsy was initially inconclusive, requested his blood be tested, which revealed he had the tick-induced allergy.
Highest rates of Mammalian Meat Allergy are in Pittwater
Assoc. Prof. van Nunen told the inquest there had been a 40 per cent year-on-year increase in mammalian meat allergy diagnoses in Australia since 2020.
The highest rates are in NSW and Queensland, with the Sydney basin - notably the Pittwater area - becoming a global hotspot.
Research from the CSIRO revealed Pittwater had the highest population of people living with the allergy in the world, recording 744 cases per 100,000 residents in 2025.
Residents who have the allergy state they are now 'living with' it, which includes cutting mammalian meat out of their diets.
Professor van Nunen said people had a 50 percent chance of developing the allergy after being bitten by just two ticks, so prevention was key.
So far, the inquest has examined the adequacy of Webb’s medical treatment before his death, the role anaphylaxis played in his death, and whether his death could have been prevented by earlier detection.
NSW Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes is expected to hand down her findings by the end of the year.
Professor Sheryl Van Nunen (Supplied: NACE)
Freeze it - Don't Squeeze it
Australian organisation Tick Induced Allergies Research and Awareness (TIARA) recommends “dressing for the occasion” before going out into the bush by wearing a long-sleeved shirt, tucked into full-length pants with socks pulled over the top.
If you or someone you know is bitten by a tick, do not “pick” it out of their skin with tweezers or tick-removal gadgets which might accidentally squeeze the tick.
Doing so could lead to “tick saliva entering the body and increasing the risk of tick-induced allergies.”
The best removal method is to spray a freezing medication and then allow it to drop off. If that fails, TIARA advises visiting your local GP or emergency department.
Professor van Nunen recommends spraying 'Tick-off' — a freezing medication — about one centimetre above the tick and then allowing it to drop off.
If the tick does not fall off, the safest way to have it removed is by your general practitioner or by visiting an emergency department, unless you are confident about extracting yourself with fine tipped forceps.
In their 2025 Profile, the group of eminent professionals from TiARA, (Tick-induced Allergies Research and Awareness Committee) shared TiARA has developed a key communication strategy to help all those at risk of tick bites.
The best course is to avoid being bitten; but if it happens, then advice is provided for managing the situation.
TIARA’s strategy is encapsulated in a key phrase:
If you are bitten by a tick:
FREEZE IT – DON’T SQUEEZE IT.
This disarmingly simple direction quickly and simply ‘Kills the tick where it is’ and greatly reduces the likelihood of an allergic reaction that may result from squeezing the tick and expelling toxins into the bloodstream. The freezing is to be done by applying an ether-based spray or cream directly to the tick and leaving it in place until it drops off.
Sprays and creams containing ether can be found at your local pharmacy.
FIND OUT MORE
For more information about ticks and how to prevent and treat their bites:
⦁ SEE the Tiara website.
⦁ DOWNLOAD How to Remove a Tick Flyer
⦁ VIEW VIDEO How to Safely Remove a Tick
⦁ VIEW VIDEO How to Prevent a Tick Bite
Although you may be bitten by ticks year-round in our area, as we head into Summer and residents go into their garden and our bush reserves to enjoy the season, please use these resources as a refresher on how to protect your family, yourself, and your pets.
Spring is a common time for tick issues, as the various tick life stages emerge from dormancy and seek a host to feed off from late Winter. This means there is a peak in tick paralysis cases from very early Spring (even late Winter) through to mid-Summer.
TIARA, established in 2013, is the inspiration of Associate Professor Sheryl Van Nunen OAM, immunologist, who was the first scientist to describe the link between tick bite and Alpha Gal (or mammalian meat) allergy in 2007.
The Co-Chairs since then have been Professor Antony Basten AO (distinguished immunologist) and West Pittwater’s Adjunct Professor Nicholas Cowdery AO KC (retired lawyer).
The committee comprises specialists in immunology, emergency and general medicine, veterinary science, entomology, communications and other relevant disciplines.
TIARA is staffed by volunteers and does valuable work in widening awareness of tick avoidance techniques, tick induced allergies (including anaphylaxis and mammalian meat allergy), providing support to those affected and working towards a better understanding of the effects.
Ixodes holocyclus, commonly known as the paralysis tick, is not only the major species of tick found in the peninsula area that affects humans, it is also the species responsible for hypersensitivity reactions in humans.
Tiara was established to:
⦁ Promote awareness of tick avoidance and tick-induced allergies to the public, health professionals, those in at-risk occupations, educators and government.
⦁ Provide resources and support for sufferers of tick-induced allergies who live remote from expert medical and dietetic advisors.
⦁ Promote research into the prevention & cure of tick-induced allergies.
⦁ Disseminate established tick management strategies and helps develop novel, proven tick management measures.
