You Probably Already Have Pork-Cat Syndrome

Do your eyes water when you’re around adorable kitties? Does your throat swell shut when it’s in proximity to delicious, delicious bacon? You may have an increasingly common allergy/The Internet’s worst nightmare realized: pork-cat syndrome.

According to WebMD (the web’s #1 source for terrifying you into thinking you are having a brain hemorrhage and need to go to the emergency room at once), pork-cat syndrome— that is, a severe allergic reaction to both pork and cats— has been reported in Europe since the late 1990’s. It’s just finding its footing here, as the States’ first six cases of the syndrome have been reported in a recent paper presented at a medical conference.

The odd pig-cat allergic connection stems from a rare human allergy to a protein found in non-primate animals. People with the syndrome sometimes experience tingling around the mouth while eating pork and difficulty breathing around felines. Sufferers studied are overwhelmingly female and have an average age of 28.

In other words, you’re next.

Pork-Cat Syndrome an Under-Recognized Allergy [WebMD]

Image via Yutilova Elena/Shutterstock