Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming, motile bacteria capable of producing botulinum, a neurotoxin.

Emile van Ermengem identified and isolated C. botulinum from home-cured ham involved in a botulism outbreak in 1895. Bacillus botulinus was given to the isolate after the Latin term for sausage, botulus. (Botulism was most likely the source of "sausage poisoning," which was a prevalent issue in 18th and 19th-century Germany.) However, because anaerobic spore-forming rods were invariably identified in isolates from future outbreaks, Ida A. Bengtson advocated that the organism be placed in the genus Clostridium, as the genus Bacillus was confined to aerobic spore-forming rods.

Botulism is a severe flaccid paralytic illness that affects humans and other animals. Botulinum toxin is the most powerful toxin known to humankind, natural or synthesised, with a fatal dosage of 1.3-2.1 ng/kg in humans.

C. botulinum is a diverse group of pathogenic bacteria that were originally grouped together by their ability to produce botulinum toxin and are now divided into four distinct groups. C. botulinum groups IIV, as well as some strains of Clostridium butyricum and Clostridium baratii, are the bacteria that produce botulinum toxin.

Foodborne botulism (ingestion of preformed toxin), infant botulism (intestinal infection with toxin-forming C. botulinum), and wound botulism are all caused by C. botulinum (infection of a wound with C. botulinum). C. botulinum develops heat-resistant endospores that can survive in harsh environments and are regularly found in soil. Bulging, misshapen cans are frequently connected with C. botulinum; bulging, misshapen cans can be caused by an internal rise in pressure caused by gas generated by the bacteria.

C. botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria that produces spores. It's an obligate anaerobe, which means oxygen is toxic to its cells. Due to the enzyme superoxide dismutase, which is a crucial antioxidant defence in practically all cells exposed to oxygen, C. botulinum tolerates traces of oxygen. Only during sporulation, which can only occur in an anaerobic environment, is C. botulinum able to create the neurotoxin. Based on the antigenicity of the botulinum toxin generated, C. botulinum is split into four separate phenotypic groups (I-IV) and seven serotypes (A-G).

The species' unifying trait is neurotoxin production. There are eight different categories of toxins, each with its own letter (A-H), some of which can cause sickness in humans. They are resistant to enzymes present in the gastrointestinal tract degrading them. This permits ingested poisons to be absorbed into the circulation through the intestines. However, heating botulinum toxin to 100°C for 15 minutes destroys all kinds of botulinum toxin (900 seconds). Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum. It is one of the most toxic biological molecules known. C. botulinum produces a total of eight antigenically distinct exotoxins.

Although most strains only generate one kind of neurotoxin, there have been reports of strains that produce numerous poisons. Human botulism cases in New Mexico and California have yielded C. botulinum generating B and F toxin types. The toxin was given the designation Bf since the type B toxin was discovered in excess of the type F toxin. Strains that produce Ab and Af poisons have also been discovered.