Arkansas’ Tick Season Is Worse Than Usual, Public Health Veterinarian Warns

One tick bite. One enzyme. One lifetime allergy. This is what’s happening in Arkansas right now. Summer is here. Kids are out of school. The temperature is climbing. And in Arkansas, the ticks are having the year of their lives. Peak tick season in Arkansas runs through summer and early fall, but 2026 is shaping up to be worse than usual. According to Dr. Laura Rothfeldt, Arkansas’ state public health veterinarian, the numbers are bad. CDC data confirms 2026 is a bad year for tick bites nationwide. Arkansas is on track to be one of the worst. But here’s what makes Arkansas different from everywhere else: the state is ground zero for a tick-borne illness that nobody fully understands and nobody has a cure for. Alpha-gal syndrome. One tick bite. And suddenly, red meat becomes poison.

What is Alpha-Gal Syndrome?

Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy to an enzyme found in red meat. Develop the allergy, and suddenly hamburgers, steak, bacon, roast chicken, even gelatin in medication capsules can trigger a reaction. The reactions can be delayed—sometimes hours after exposure—which makes it even more confusing when symptoms hit. The symptoms range from mild (swollen lips, hives) to severe (anaphylactic shock). Some people have reactions within an hour. Some take hours to respond. Some have reactions to some products and not others. The variability is part of what makes this illness so difficult to manage.You get the allergy from a Lone Star tick bite. The tick transmits the alpha-gal enzyme directly into your bloodstream. Your immune system reacts to it. And suddenly you’re allergic to red meat.

There is no cure.

Arkansas is one of the hotspots for alpha-gal syndrome in the United States. Lone Star ticks are abundant in Arkansas. And the combination has created a public health crisis that’s largely invisible because people don’t always understand what’s happening to them.

The Numbers are Staggering

Arkansas was the first state to require labs to report suspected alpha-gal cases to the state health department. That happened in 2023. Since then, the data has been getting more alarming. Last year, Arkansas reported 3,782 suspected cases. Of those, 431 were investigated. Of those investigations, 301 were confirmed cases. That’s about a 60% confirmation rate among cases that get investigated.This year, Arkansas is already at 3,005 suspected cases, and we’re only partway through tick season. Stop and think about what those numbers mean. Thousands of people in a single state are showing antibodies for alpha-gal. Thousands. And that’s just the people who got tested and whose results got reported. That’s just the documented cases.The actual number is probably higher.

Dr. Rothfeldt emphasized an important point: “Out of those people that have an elevated antibody level, many of those people do not show allergy to that.” Not everyone with the antibody experiences symptoms. But many do. And when they do, it changes their life.

What this means for Arkansas

If you live in Arkansas and you go outside during tick season, you’re at risk. If you hike, garden, walk through tall grass, sit on outdoor furniture, or basically exist in nature, you could get bitten by a Lone Star tick. Most tick bites won’t cause alpha-gal. But some will. And you won’t know for weeks or months or sometimes years—because alpha-gal symptoms don’t always appear immediately after exposure.Imagine the timeline: You get bitten by a tick in June. You don’t notice. In July, you develop an allergy. In August, you’re at a barbecue and you eat a burger and three hours later you can’t breathe. You go to the ER thinking you’re having an allergic reaction to something in the burger (maybe the grill? maybe the condiments?) when actually you’re having an immune response to an enzyme you were exposed to months ago. That’s what’s happening to people in Arkansas right now.

The Conversation You Need To Be Ready For

Here’s what makes this worse: there’s no cure. There’s only prevention.Dr. Rothfeldt’s advice is straightforward: tuck pants into socks, treat clothing with permethrin (an insecticide), do regular tick checks, remove ticks immediately if you find them. That’s good advice. It’s also unrealistic for how most people actually live.You can’t spend the entire summer in long pants tucked into socks. You can’t treat all your clothing with permethrin and never leave your house. And casual tick prevention only goes so far. Lone Star ticks are aggressive. They climb. They hunt. They find you. So we’re at an impasse: we have a serious public health problem, no cure for it, and prevention methods that are impractical for real life.

Why this is bigger than Arkansas

Alpha-gal syndrome is spreading beyond Arkansas. Cases have been documented across the Southeast and increasingly in other regions where Lone Star ticks are found. But Arkansas is still the hotspot, and the numbers keep climbing. What happens in Arkansas is a preview of what could happen elsewhere. If other states start seeing similar surveillance and reporting, they might discover they have the same problem. Or they might already have it and just haven’t documented it yet. The CDC has been tracking alpha-gal. Public health departments are starting to take it seriously. But the general public? Most people have never heard of it. And that’s a problem because the most common reaction when someone develops alpha-gal syndrome is confusion and misdiagnosis. People think they have a food allergy. People think they’re developing a condition they can manage with medication. People don’t understand that the allergy is permanent and that management means avoiding red meat for the rest of their lives.

What needs to happen

Short term: people in Arkansas need to know what alpha-gal is. They need to understand the risk. They need to understand that it’s real and it’s happening and tick prevention matters. Medium term: we need better surveillance and reporting so we actually understand the scope of the problem. Arkansas is doing this. Other states should follow.Long term: we need research. We need to understand why alpha-gal develops in some people and not others. We need to understand if there’s any way to reverse it or manage it better. We need to figure out if there’s any prevention strategy that actually works at scale.

But we also need to have an honest conversation about something we’re not really discussing: sometimes prevention fails. Sometimes people get bitten anyway. And when they do, they need support and understanding, not judgment.

This is a tick season problem that’s uniquely serious in Arkansas. One tick bite can change someone’s life. There’s no cure. The only tool we have is prevention, and prevention is imperfect.

Dr. Laura Rothfeldt has been watching this play out as the state’s public health veterinarian. She’s seen the cases climb. She’s seen the confusion. She’s seen people trying to figure out how to live a normal life while managing an allergy that doesn’t fit neatly into any category.

If you live in Arkansas, this should matter to you. If you’re planning to visit Arkansas during tick season, this should factor into your decision-making. If you’re a healthcare provider in Arkansas, you should be ready for patients who don’t understand why they’re reacting to red meat.

And if you’re a veterinarian anywhere? This is part of the conversation about tick-borne illness that we need to be having with our clients. Because while alpha-gal is a human health issue, it starts with ticks. And ticks start with exposure.

Tick Preventioin Helps

Since there’s no cure and prevention is imperfect, here’s what actually helps: Wear light-colored clothing so you can see ticks more easily. Tuck pants into socks in high-risk areas (tall grass, wooded areas). Treat your clothing with permethrin before you go out. Do a full-body tick check when you come back inside. Remove any ticks immediately with a tick removal tool (not your fingers, not burning, not Vaseline). Shower and wash your clothes.

Is it perfect? No. But it significantly reduces your risk.

For pets, use tick prevention year-round. Ticks aren’t just a summer problem, and your pets are bringing ticks home from the yard.

And if you do get bitten, take a picture of the tick or keep it to show to a healthcare provider. Documentation matters, especially for something like alpha-gal where timing and exposure history are part of understanding what’s happening.

Arkansas is one of the hotspots for alpha-gal syndrome in the United States. 2026 is a worse-than-usual tick season. The combination creates real risk for anyone living in or visiting the state. For more information about alpha-gal syndrome and tick prevention, visit the CDC website at cdc.gov/alpha-gal-syndrome.