Botulism as a food poisoning : what is it ?

الملخص EN

-Botulism is a rare but potentially life-threatening neuroparalytic syndrome resulting from the action of a neurotoxin elaborated by the microorganism Clostridium botulinum.

This disease has a lengthy history; the first investigation of botulism occurred in the 1820s with a case report on hundreds of patients with "sausage poisoning" in a southern German town.

Several decades later in Belgium, the association was demonstrated between a neuromuscular paralysis and ham infected by a spore forming bacillus that was isolated from the ham.

The organism was named Bacillus botulinus after the Latin word for sausage, botulus.