What is "clostridium botulinum"

clostridium \clostridium\ n. clostridia

1. spindle-shaped bacterial cell esp. one swollen at the center by an endospore.

   Syn: clostridia.

2. [capitalized] a genus of anaerobic, spore-forming motile bacteria of the family Bacillaceae, including several pathogenic species, such as the causative agents of gas gangrene ( Clostridium perfringens), botulism ( Clostridium botulinum), and tetanus ( Clostridium tetani).

Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming, motile bacterium with the ability to produce the neurotoxin botulinum. The botulinum toxin can cause a severe flaccid paralytic disease in humans and other animals and is the most potent toxin known to mankind, natural or synthetic, with a lethal dose of 1.3–2.1 ng/kg in humans.

C. botulinum is a diverse group of pathogenic bacteria initially grouped together by their ability to produce botulinum toxin and now known as four distinct groups, C. botulinum groups I-IV. C. botulinum groups I-IV, as well as some strains of Clostridium butyricum and Clostridium baratii, are the bacteria responsible for producing botulinum toxin.

C. botulinum is responsible for foodborne 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.