Talk:Clostridium botulinum

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ichigo Ryu.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:52, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Ability to kill the spores?
The following paragraph appears in the text. It is ended by a "NOT!" reminiscent of Borat. Such an expression is not appropriate for a scientific article such as this one. Although I am not an expert on the subject, I also believe I read somewhere that it wasn't possible to kill the spores of the botulinum by pressurized boiling. Can anybody confirm this? watevrrrr

Clostridium botulinum is a soil bacterium. The spores can survive in most environments and are very hard to kill. They can survive the temperature of boiling water at sea level, thus many foods are canned with a pressurized boil that achieves an even higher temperature, sufficient to kill the spores.NOT!

Genome sequenced.
See Sanger or say New Scientist blurb etc. Needs to be mixed into article when people have time. Ttiotsw 15:05, 28 May 2007 (UTC) i hate you!!11 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.10.103.193 (talk) 18:45, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

They are anaerobic
 "These rod-shaped organisms grow best in low-oxygen conditions." They are anaerobic. Not only facultatively. This sentence above can mislead the reader, because it suggests that they still grow even under high-oxygen conditions... Low oxygen conditions can be TOLERATED by them, which means something totally different. They are able to SURVIVE the presence of oxygen, because they have an enzyme called SOD (superoxide dismutase). Oxygen however is not something they like, it's actually quite toxic for them. Myrmeleon formicarius (talk) 20:18, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Just to add some more sources than my own silly head: "Clostridium Facts Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive anaerobic spore-forming bacterium" I didn't have to go further for this sentence than the link at the external links of the article...

http://pathema.tigr.org/tigr-scripts/Clostridium/PathemaHomePage.cgi


 * This article should be improved... Myrmeleon formicarius (talk) 20:47, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Would the presence of SOD make them aerotolerant? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.182.41.227 (talk) 01:53, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

:D I'm happy to see
PROGRESS!!! You are great, thanks for improving the article :) Myrmeleon formicarius (talk) 02:50, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Infant
As soon as infants begin eating solid food, the digestive juices become too acidic for the bacterium to grow.

At what pH does Clostridium botulinum sporulate and are they able to begin diving again once they are further along the digestive tract where it is less acidic? Zacharyherbert (talk) 21:36, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Does this mean babies can die from being fed toxin free spores? Jokem (talk) 20:44, 7 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Infant botulism happens when the bacteria colonize the intestines of an infant, which lack the flora of an adult. It just has to survive the stomach acid, not grow in it. I don't know for sure with infant botulism but in cholera the bacteria are aided in their survival and eventual colonization of the intestines by protection from stomach acid by food and Vibrio cholerae is highly susceptible to acid. Thus, spores consumed without botulism toxin can cause a botulism disease. I believe it is the same deal with wound botulism.WillWritesWiki (talk) 19:27, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

LD50
According to the page for Botulinum toxin, the LD50 is 5 to 50 ng/kg, not 1 ng/kg. Which is correct? Hieronymus Illinensis (talk) 00:26, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Toxicity
In the "Botulinum toxin types" paragraph it mentions the following: "An eighth toxin, type H, was discovered by researchers at the California Department of Public Health in 2013. With a lethal dose of 2 ng by injection or 13 ng by inhalation, it was deemed the most toxic substance on Earth."

Then, in the "Other" paragraph, it mentions the following: "Botulin toxin produced by C. botulinum is often believed to be a potential bioweapon as it is so potent that it takes about 75 nanograms to kill a person (LD50 of 1 ng/kg,[35] assuming an average person weighs ~75 kg);" Shouldn't the first reference (in the "Botulinum toxin types" paragraph) also refer to the lethal dose or LD50 per kg? It seems unlikely that the LD50 of type H is always 2ng, regardless of weight (e.g. 20kg child or large 100kg adult).

Article cleanup
I'm attempting to clean up and reorganize the article. I preserved as much as the old article as possible for now while reorganizing and adding content. I removed this passage though which was particularly poorly written:

Botulinum toxin infectivity - The following conditions are required for botulinum toxin to be infectious when found in food: Anaerobic environment: there is usually canned and other aerobic microorganisms in a closed container with oxygen consumption is provided. Canyon proper temperature for the type A and B reproduced C.botulinum between the 10-12 and the 47-50 °C. Type E psychorotroph known as exposure within 31 to 45 days at 3.3 °C cooling can also produce toxins. Relative humidity, high salt, low-acid, oxygen-free foods and maintained without refrigeration, growth and toxin supports the creation C.botulinum. Using commercial sterilization and pasteurization in combination with other control measures, such as nitrite and salt, as well as the use of vacuum meat from the refrigerator, perishable C.botulinum poisoning can be controlled.[1]

RowerMD (talk) 02:43, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 11:56, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by JJMC89 bot (talk • contribs) 11:56, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Why does it do this?
Is there any theory about why this bacterium produces this toxin? Does killing people (or animals) somehow help it to reproduce? Eric Kvaalen (talk) 16:58, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: MIBO 3500 Introduction to Microbiology
— Assignment last updated by Bluegelpen (talk) 20:15, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

Info related to the toxin
I feel like there is not enough information on the botulinum toxin. The toxin is what causes harm from this bacteria, and I feel like the article could benefit from some more information. How and why does the toxin develop in some food? 2600:1700:2175:4C0:A008:A4E0:B60E:1906 (talk) 01:58, 4 February 2024 (UTC) Camccorkle (talk) 01:59, 4 February 2024 (UTC)


 * We have a separate article about the toxin. Botulinum toxin is linked in this article, did you miss it? By the way "bacteria" is plural, so it should be "these bacteria" not "this bactera". Graham Beards (talk) 08:17, 4 February 2024 (UTC)