Botulism

Each year in the United States there are about 150 cases of botulism with about 25 of them specifically caused by contaminated foodstuffs. Food borne botulism is a severe intoxication caused by eating the preformed toxin present in contaminated food.

Food borne botulism occurs when the bacterium Clostridium botulinum is allowed to grow and produce toxin in food that is later eaten without sufficient heating or cooking to inactivate the toxin. Botulinum toxin is one of the most potent neurotoxins known.

Growth of this anaerobic bacteria and the formation of the toxin tend to happen in products with low acidity and oxygen content and low salt and sugar content. Inadequately processed, home-canned foods like asparagus, green beans, beets, and corn have commonly been implicated. However, there have been outbreaks of botulism from more unusual sources such as chopped garlic in oil, chili peppers, improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil and home-canned or fermented fish. Garden foods like tomatoes, which used to be considered too acidic for the growth of Clostridium botulinum, is now considered a potentially hazardous food in home canning. Though more common in home-canned foods, it happens only occasionally in commercially prepared foods.

The most common type of botulism in America is infant botulism, which makes up about 65% of the total botulism cases. This disease affects children under 12 months old. The infant ingests the spores of the bacteria in foodstuffs like honey. The spores germinate in the intestine where they produce the bacteria, which in turn reproduce, and release the toxin. Because honey can contain spores of Clostridium botulinum, infants under 1 year old should not be fed honey.

Typically in a few hours to several days after you eat the contaminated food you will start to show the classic symptoms; blurred vision, dry mouth, and difficulty in swallowing. Gastrointestinal symptoms may or may not occur. If untreated, the paralysis always descends through the body starting at the shoulders and working its way down. The most serious complication of botulism is respiratory failure where it is fatal in up to 10% of people. It may take months before recovery is complete.

If the disease is caught early enough it can be treated with antitoxin. If paralysis and respiratory failure happen the person may be on a ventilator for several weeks.

What can you do to prevent this horrible food borne illness?

- Follow strict hygienic steps when canning foods at home.

- Refrigerate oils containing garlic or herbs.

- Keep baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil should either be kept hot until served or refrigerated.

- Consider boiling home-canned food for 10 minutes before eating it to inactivate any toxin lurking in the food.

- Discard any damaged or bulging cans or any abnormal smelling preserved foods. Do not taste test or even attempt to boil, just throw it out.

Home-canning and preserving of foods is a tradition in America old as the country itself. Taking some careful and common sense steps can help prevent this potent toxin from invading your canned goods.

Botulism: Webster’s Timeline History, 1870 – 2007
by: Icon Group International
publisher: ICON Group International, Inc., published: 2010-03-10
ASIN: B003M2WPSI
sales rank: 6014659
price: $28.95 (new)

Webster’s bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on “Botulism,” including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Botulism in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Botulism when it is used in proper noun form. Webster’s timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This “data dump” results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Botulism, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under “fair use” conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain.

Botulism (Deadly Diseases and Epidemics)
by: Donald Emmeluth
publisher: Chelsea House Pub (T), published: 2010-06
ASIN: 1604132353
EAN: 9781604132359
sales rank: 3349495
price: $15.58 (new), $15.70 (used)

Botulism (Epidemics)
by: Maxine Rosaler
publisher: Rosen Pub Group, published: 2003-08
ASIN: 0823941973
EAN: 9780823941971
sales rank: 5528275
price: $30.60 (new), $2.32 (used)

Botulism
Botulism is a rare, but serious type of food poisoning caused by an organism called Bacterium clostridium. The organism generally exists in a dormant state as a spore. In conditions of low oxygen and acidity, such as improperly canned food, it flourishes in a bacteria form. In high numbers it produces a powerful toxin. The toxin enters the body through contaminated food, though in the case of biological warfare, it could be inhaled. Once the toxin has passed through the stomach and reaches the intestines, it is absorbed into the blood stream. The toxin then leaves the circulatory system. At the point where a nerve joins a muscle, botulism toxin binds to the nerve ending and blocks normal signals for muscle contraction. This results in paralysis of the muscle. Symptoms develop in 1 to 3 days and include paralysis of the muscles that control vision, swallowing, and breathing. If untreated, symptoms can progress to respiratory failure resulting in death. Botulism is not contagious. If you believe you have been exposed to botulism, please contact your physician immediately.

Botulism in Canned Product
Failure of new MainStay jars at walmart.

Botulism

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 10:01 AM and is filed under Health issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.