BOTULISM. Botulism is a paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin produced by the soil bacterium Clostridium botulinum and spread by contaminated food or by infection of a wound. The term comes from the Latin botulus (sausage), but the vehicle in food-borne cases today is usually vegetables or other food improperly canned at home. Commercial canning is almost never implicated, although a notable case in 1971 left one person dead and several others seriously injured. The illness is rare, with only twenty-five to thirty food-borne cases reported annually in the United States.

C. botulinum is a spore-forming bacteria that can lie dormant in the soil for months or years. In a warm, moist, low-oxygen environment, however, the spores can produce vegetative cells that multiply rapidly and secrete a deadly toxin, which attacks the nervous system of the person ingesting contaminated food.

Symptoms of...