Clostridium botulinum

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Clostridium botulinum is a gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming, motile bacterium that has the ability to produce botulinum toxin, which is a neurotoxin known to be the deadliest substance ever recorded in the chemical literature. C. botulinum is a diverse group of pathogenic bacteria. Initially, they were grouped together by their ability to produce botulinum toxin and are now known as four distinct groups, C. botulinum groups I–IV. Along with some strains of Clostridium butyricum and Clostridium baratii, these bacteria all produce the toxin. Botulinum toxin can cause botulism, a severe flaccid paralytic disease in humans and other animals. The botulinum toxin is the most potent toxin known in scientific literature, natural or synthetic, with a lethal dose of 1.3–2.1 ng/kg in humans. C. botulinum is commonly associated with bulging canned food; misshapen cans can be due to an internal increase in pressure caused by gas produced by bacteria. C. botulinum can also grow in traditionally aged meats (e.g. igunaq) and carrion (e.g. dead beached whale). C. botulinum is responsible for food-borne botulism (ingestion of preformed toxin), infant botulism (intestinal infection with toxin-forming C. botulinum), and wound botulism (infection of a wound with C. botulinum). C. botulinum produces heat-resistant endospores that are commonly found in soil and are able to survive under adverse conditions.