A tick bite made him allergic to beef, so he started a farm with 400 ostriches

A tiny creature called a tick bit Brent Williams. It drinks blood, and its bite made him unable to eat beef. So now he works at a farm with more than 400 ostriches. Williams is a nutritionist in Kentucky, and he needed a red meat he could eat.

The bite gave him alpha-gal syndrome, a red meat allergy. Certain ticks pass a sugar into a person's blood. The body then attacks that sugar and reacts badly when the person eats beef, pork, or other red meat. About 100,000 Americans are known to have it, but many more may not know. Birds like ostrich are safe, so ostrich meat is a good choice.

Williams works at Alpha Roost Farms in Danville, Kentucky, with owner W.D. King. The farm expects about 700 ostriches next year. Ostrich meat for hamburgers costs more than $20 per pound, and the best pieces cost more than $40. But people who miss hamburgers are buying it. Boyd Clark runs a Texas farm with 1,200 birds, and he expects 50 percent more next year. Restaurants and small stores are calling him because customers ask for ostrich.

Williams tried an ostrich steak after seven years without beef, and it brought back memories. "There's only so many ways you can cook a chicken," he said.

This interest is not new. In the 1990s many farms failed because owners kept the birds too close together. Ostriches need open space, and today only 10 to 15 large US farms remain. Farmers say they have learned to give the birds enough room.