∞ generated and posted on 2016.02.16 ∞
Cause of flaccid paralysis.
| Clostridium botulinum is the spore-forming, animal-flesh decaying, neurotoxin-producing, otherwise soil-associated bacterium (oh yes, and that causes the disease, botulism). |
Clostridium botulinum is a normally that can be viewed, loosely, as a predator of animals. It is achieves this predation via a combination of infection especially of and subsequent production of the exotoxin, botulinum toxin.
, i.e., mortality, is a consequence of complications associated with the resulting and the bacterium gains from this death as a saprophyte, that is, consumer of .
From :
Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive organism, a member of the , that produces one of several toxins collectively known as botulinum , which are the most potent toxins known to man and induce a potentially fatal in and various animal species known as "." In humans, the most commonly reported types of botulism are , , and . Consumption of contaminated food in which neurotoxin has been produced can result in food-borne botulism, a severe disease with a high . As little as 30 ng of neurotoxin can be . Infant botulism is an toxemia that affects children <12 mo of age; a similar disease also very rarely affects adults, and occurs when competing bacteria in the have been suppressed (e.g., by ).
Overall, the genome indicates that C. botulinum is adapted to a lifestyle both in and . This pathogen relies on its toxin to rapidly kill a wide range of prey species, and to gain access to nutrient sources, it releases a large number of to soften and destroy or tissues. … The genome supports the view of C. botulinum as an essentially saprophytic organism that uses its toxin to rapidly kill a host for subsequent saprophytic utilization.
Note that a number of other pathogens are found within genus Clostridium including Clostridium tetani.