Hives or a sore stomach after Sunday roast lamb, a doner kebab or Irish stew? Lamb is often called the least allergenic meat, yet some people do react, sometimes with no problem at all from chicken. Our test checks your blood for IgE to lamb meat, as part of 300 allergens and allergen components, next to beef, pork, alpha-gal and sheep's milk.
Lamb used to be the first meat offered in elimination diets, because reactions to it are rare. Rare is not never. Case reports describe people with severe reactions after lamb, including some who tolerated other meats.
Lamb shares proteins with other red meat. Its serum albumin looks like the albumins in beef and pork, and it carries alpha-gal, the tick-linked sugar found in most mammal meat. So a lamb result is best read together with beef, pork and alpha-gal.
People describe itching in the mouth, hives, swelling, stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhoea after eating lamb. With protein sensitisation, reactions usually start within minutes to two hours. With alpha-gal, they typically start two to six hours after eating, often at night.
Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, trouble breathing or feeling faint after eating, even hours later, is an emergency. Call 112 (EU) or your local emergency number. Do not wait for a test.
IgE to lamb often appears alongside IgE to beef or pork, and many people with that pattern eat cooked meat without trouble. A positive result shows that your blood recognises lamb proteins. It does not tell you that you will react.
If lamb has never caused you problems, keep eating it unless a doctor says otherwise. If it has, the result gives your doctor a starting point.
From your finger-prick sample, the lab measures IgE to a whole lamb meat extract as part of 300 allergens and allergen components. There are no single lamb proteins on the panel, but beef serum albumin (Bos d 6), pork serum albumin (Sus d 1) and alpha-gal are, so a doctor can see which route fits. Your lab report gives each value a class from Negative to Very high.
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One finger-prick sample checks IgE to 300 allergens and allergen components, from birch and peanut to cat and house dust mite. Post it to the lab, and about 5 days after it arrives you get a value for every one. Our plain-English guide shows you how to read them. €399 in total, €1.33 per allergen.
Yes, it is reported, although many people sensitised to one red meat show IgE to others too. The panel measures lamb, beef, pork, horse and rabbit meat separately, so you can see the pattern on one report.
Reactions to lamb are rare, which is why it was long used in elimination diets. But rare is not never. Severe reactions to lamb have been described, and lamb carries alpha-gal like other red meat.
A delay of two to six hours is typical of alpha-gal, a sugar in mammal meat linked to tick bites. Alpha-gal is on the same panel. A doctor can tell you what your results mean.
