Botulism is a disease caused by C. botulinum; the most common form is food-borne botulism, that results from ingestion of preformed toxin and is, therefore, an intoxication rather than an infection. [Black, G-4] The classic symptoms of botulism include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, and muscle weakness, facial weakness, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and paralysis. These are all symptoms of the muscle paralysis caused by the bacterial toxin. If untreated, these symptoms may progress to cause paralysis of the arms, legs, trunk and respiratory muscles and this disease can be fatal.[4] In food-borne botulism, symptoms generally begin 18 to 36 hours after eating a contaminated food, but they can occur as early as 6 hours or as late as 10 days. [4] Sometimes people can become sick with botulism from canned foods. Botulism spores thrive in a moist, oxygen-free environment. If the botulinum organism is not eliminated in the canning process it can grow and produce a deadly toxin within three to four days of growth. [5]
Many bacteria are super troopers with many forms of survival; one of the many methods bacteria uses for survival, is the ability to produce an endospore. Clostridium botulinum is a soil bacteria that produces a subterminal endospore. Botulism poisoning is a disease caused by the bacteria C. botulinum; this bacteria at times, can be fatal. Under conditions of starvation, especially the lack of carbon and nitrogen sources, a single endospore forms within some bacteria. An endospore is not a reproductive structure, but rather a resistant, dormant survival form of the bacteria.[2] Endospores can be located centrally, terminally or subterminally within a cell. [3] A parent cell can only produce only one endospore. Although endospores are not metabolically active, they can survive long periods of droughts and are highly resistant to killing. [Black, 163] They are...