Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Genetics, Control
and Prevention
THE CONGRESS
16 -19 June 2008
University of Helsinki, Finland
Clostridium botulinum is a spore-forming bacterium
which produces botulinum neurotoxin, the most potent natural toxin known
to man. While the neurotoxin produced by C. botulinum has proven to be valuable in therapeutics of spastic muscular disorders,
it in parallel poses a significant health hazard to humans through several
vehicles such as food, drink, and the environment. The disease caused by
the neurotoxin, botulism, is manifested by a descending paralysis of motor
nerves, which may lead to death upon respiratory muscle collapse. There
are several forms of human botulism, the most well-known of which is the
classical foodborne botulism due to consumption of preformed botulinum neurotoxin
with food or drink. Infant and adult intestinal botulism are gastrointestinal infections resulting from in vivo outgrowth and toxin production from ingested C. botulinum spores. Wound botulism results from infection of a wound with C.
botulinum with in situ production of botulinum neurotoxin. Although botulism is relatively rare,
it is a life-threatening disease and even a single case causes considerable
costs to health care systems and food industries. The Congress will focus
on epidemiological and diagnostics issues on C. botulinum,
botulinum neurotoxin, and botulism, and will highlight the latest developments
in the genetic and genomic research on neurotoxigenic clostridia.
