A bizarre condition caused by tick bites appears to have claimed its first known human. Scientists have just linked a 47-year-old New Jersey man’s death last year to alpha-gal syndrome, commonly known as the red meat allergy.

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine detailed the tragic incident in a case report released this week. The man seemed to have experienced a severe allergic reaction to the burger he had eaten four hours earlier, with experts later finding evidence of alpha-gal sensitivity in his blood. Though this might be the first death tied to red meat allergy, it may not be the last, since cases in general are rising in the U.S.

“We report here the first documented fatal case of [alpha-gal syndrome] occurring after consuming mammalian meat,” the researche

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