This may be experienced as dyspnea (difficulty breathing), but when severe can lead to respiratory failure, due to the buildup of unexhaled carbon dioxide and its resultant depressant effect on the brain.

Typical symptoms of infant botulism include constipation, lethargy, weakness, difficulty feeding, and an altered cry, often progressing to a complete descending flaccid paralysis.

[citation needed] Food-borne botulism results from contaminated food in which C. botulinum spores have been allowed to germinate in low-oxygen conditions.

This typically occurs in improperly prepared home-canned food substances and fermented dishes without adequate salt or acidity.

One example was a person who cut their ankle while using a weed eater; as the wound healed over, it trapped a blade of grass and spec of soil under the skin that lead to severe botulism requiring hospitalization and rehabilitation for months.

[24] This may include loss of strength, blurred vision, change of voice, or trouble breathing which can result in death.

[24] This generally only occurs with inappropriate strengths of botulinum toxin for cosmetic use or due to the larger doses used to treat movement disorders.

[39] There are eight serological varieties of the bacterium denoted by the letters A to H. The toxin from all of these acts in the same way and produces similar symptoms: the motor nerve endings are prevented from releasing acetylcholine, causing flaccid paralysis and symptoms of blurred vision, ptosis, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, cramps, and respiratory difficulty.

[citation needed] Botulinum toxin is broken into eight neurotoxins (labeled as types A, B, C [C1, C2], D, E, F, and G), which are antigenically and serologically distinct but structurally similar.

[43] The spores require warm temperatures, a protein source, an anaerobic environment, and moisture in order to become active and produce toxin.

In the wild, decomposing vegetation and invertebrates combined with warm temperatures can provide ideal conditions for the botulism bacteria to activate and produce toxin that may affect feeding birds and other animals.

[44] Botulinum inhibits the release within the nervous system of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, responsible for communication between motor neurons and muscle cells.

Other diseases such as Guillain–Barré syndrome, stroke, and myasthenia gravis can appear similar to botulism, and special tests may be needed to exclude these other conditions.

A definite diagnosis can be made if botulinum toxin is identified in the food, stomach or intestinal contents, vomit or feces.

Botulinum toxin can be detected by a variety of techniques, including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), electrochemiluminescent (ECL) tests and mouse inoculation or feeding trials.

[52] While commercially canned goods are required to undergo a "botulinum cook" in a pressure cooker at 121 °C (250 °F) for 3 minutes,[citation needed] and thus rarely cause botulism, there have been notable exceptions.

Foodborne botulism is the rarest form, accounting for only around 15% of cases (US)[53] and has more frequently resulted from home-canned foods with low acid content, such as carrot juice, asparagus, green beans, beets, and corn.

[54] Other, much rarer sources of infection (about every decade in the US[53]) include garlic or herbs[55] stored covered in oil without acidification,[56] chili peppers,[53] improperly handled baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil,[53] tomatoes,[53] and home-canned or fermented fish.

[60][61] Any container of food which has been heat-treated and then assumed to be airtight which shows signs of not being so, e.g., metal cans with pinprick holes from rust or mechanical damage, should be discarded.

Only assurance of sufficient thermal processing during production, and absence of a route for subsequent contamination, should be used as indicators of food safety.

[77] Between 1990 and 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 263 individual foodborne cases from 160 botulism events in the United States with a case-fatality rate of 4%.

[79] All data regarding botulism antitoxin releases and laboratory confirmation of cases in the US are recorded annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published on their website.

From 1985 to 2005 there were outbreaks causing 91 confirmed cases of foodborne botulism in Canada, 85% of which were in Inuit communities, especially Nunavik, as well as First Nations of the coast of British Columbia, following consumption of traditionally prepared marine mammal and fish products.

Botulism has been reported in such species as rats, mice, chicken, frogs, toads, goldfish, aplysia, squid, crayfish, drosophila and leeches.

Phosphorus-deficient cattle, especially in southern Africa, are inclined to ingest bones and carrion containing clostridial toxins and consequently develop lame sickness or lamsiekte.

Clostridium botulinum type C toxin has been incriminated as the cause of grass sickness, a condition in horses which occurs in rainy and hot summers in Northern Europe.

[97] Domestic dogs may develop systemic toxemia after consuming C. botulinum type C exotoxin or spores within bird carcasses or other infected meat[98] but are generally resistant to the more severe effects of C. botulinum type C. Symptoms include flaccid muscle paralysis, which can lead to death due to cardiac and respiratory arrest.

[102] Based on CIA research in Fort Detrick on biological warfare, anthrax and botulism were widely regarded as the two most effective options.

[104] However, the only way to make antitoxin in America until the 1990s was by drawing antibodies from a single horse named First Flight, raising much concern from Pentagon health officials.

"[104] A Japanese cult called Aum Shinrikyo created laboratories that produced biological weapons, specifically botulinum, anthrax, and Q fever.