Pathogen Research Paper

Clostridium botulinum is an, anaerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming bacteria that causes the disease known as botulism (Smith and Sugiyama, 1988). It produces a potent neurotoxin called botulinum toxin which causes botulism or more specifically foodborne botulism. The spores of the bacteria can survive high temperatures and can live in foods that are incorrectly or poorly processed (FDA). There are seven types of botulism recognized, (A-G), but only A, B, E, and F cause human botulism (FDA).

Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum toxin which is the strongest human known toxin. This makes it have great potential for use as a bioweapon. The concern for this has risen due to Iraq’s production, under Saddam Hussein’s rule, of 19,000 liters of botulinum toxin in 1995. This amount is enough to kill the entire population of humans on earth, three times over. The use of this neurotoxin could be in the form of aerosol or food contamination. For this reason, it is highly studied. It is also the reason I picked Clostridium botulinum as the bacterium to do my research paper on.

Clostridium botulinum has a rich history dating back to 19th century Europe where it first contaminated sausages, causing outbreaks of foodborne botulism. (1-3) In fact, the term botulism is derived from the Latin term botulus, meaning sausage. (1,3) Microbiologist Emile Pierre Marie van Ermengem first described the etiologic agent in 1897, (1-3) following isolation of the anaerobic bacillus from ham and splenic tissue obtained upon autopsy. (2,3) Although first referred to as Bacillus botulinus, it was eventually renamed Clostridium botulinum to distinguish it from the aerobic spore-forming genus Bacillus. (2) Importantly, the presence of a toxin was noted at this time, as cell-free extracts were capable of causing disease. (1,2)

Step 1: Written observation of the symptoms of the fruit and signs of the pathogen.

Many countries use the fermentation method in order to preserve or enhance the flavors of foods. However, the result of fermentation can also lead to drastic symptoms. For instance, the article “Food-Borne Paralysis from Eating Home-Pickled Eggs” from an Outbreak 37 article is about a 68-year-old man having symptoms involving paralysis and muscle weakness after eating the home-pickled eggs that he had made. This is one example of what we call Clostridium Botulinum. Clostridium Botulinum is a rod-shaped bacterium with a terminal endospore. This pathogen grows best around room temperature to warm areas and loves the environment that has soil. They are also gram-positive bacteria. There are three types of Clostridium Botulism: foodborne, infant botulism, and wound. These different types of botulism have different symptoms, causes, preventions, and treatments. C. Botulinum has spores that releases toxins and can germinate and affect other organisms. This neurotoxin is highly toxic which can make a person have paralysis. Originally, there are more than four different types of botulism, but those other types of botulism do not affect human’s health.

One of the most frequently worldwide foodborne diseases outbreak was caused by the enterotoxin produced by the Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). When certain strains of S. aureus is growing, the enterotoxin is produced as a byproduct. In favorable condition, enterotoxin is not produced by the S. aureus. Generally, the toxin will be produced once the total cell numbers reach 100,000 per gram of meat. Enterotoxin is high heat resistant which not able to remove by the normal temperature and time used to process or cook foods. It also could withstand high salt levels, nitrite and grow in the condition with or without air. S. aureus is often present in the mucous membranes which are the nose and throat, the surface of the skin and hair. It can also present in infections lead to the occurrence of food contamination. For an example, S. aureus could be transmitted through the air and contaminate the meat from the carcass during the processing. Foods that often contaminate with S. aureus included ham, corned beef, salami, bacon, barbecued meat, salads, the baking product containing cream and cheese.

The two ways a pathogen can enter the body is through direct contact transmission or through indirect contact transmission. A direct contact transmission occurs when infected blood or body fluids from one person enter another person’s body at the correct entry site. A direct contact

In this paper we will be discussing Botulism. Botulism is a type of food poisoning that is both rare and serious. Botulism can be caused by different strains of the bacterium Clostridium, however, it is usually is caused by Clostridium botulinum. Botulism can cause severe symptoms, including paralytic symptoms that can eventually lead to death. There are different types of botulism including foodborne botulism, wound botulism, and infant botulism. All types of botulism may be lethal and should always be considered a medical emergency. If illness is left untreated the possibility is greatly increased. We will also discuss a rare case of

My future career is becoming an Infectious Disease Specialist. This is a career in the medical field where a patient might have a disease that is contagious and their blood, urine etc. samples come to the specialists. The specialists see what kind of disease the patient has based off of this. They can determined if it can be treated and how to plan to contain the disease so no one else gets it. An example of using the Respiratory anatomy knowledge in my career field might be seen on the patient. A patient might have an infectious Respiratory disease that comes into the hospital. The nurses or regular onsite doctors might do a series of tests on the respiratory part of the body. A test might be a Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) which measures

However, to find better antitoxins or further research, animal testing is conduced, which could be an issue posing ethical concerns. The majority of food borne botulism cases are caused by improper canning methods. The disease would be significantly less prevalent if people were restricted from canning food; yet, this would not be ethical. Consequently, the effects of botulism are managed with proper treatments and increasing education about the disease. The CDC identifies the opportunities of this disease as increasing clinical and consumer education in combination with applying tools of molecular biology (CDC, 2016). The applications of this theory should lead to decreased incidence rates of

Have you ever wondered what Germs are and what they do? Well Germs are tiny organisms that can cause diseases. Once they get inside your body gems can devour your nutrients and energy. They can produce toxins that cause infections like fevers, rashes, sniffles, coughing, etc.Two major types of germs are viruses and bacteria.

Included is a list of tasks and procedures, or groups of closely related tasks and procedures, in which occupational exposure may occur to these individuals:

Enthusiasm for food safety has developed as food supply chains the world over have endured one type of food scare or the other (Kaferstein et al., 1997, Mørkbak et al. 2010). Despite the fact that, the Food Standard Agency (FSA) UK, reported a 19.2% decrease in food borne ailments somewhere around 2000 and 2006, there were still more than 53,000 research facility reported instances of food borne pathogens in the UK in 2005 (FSA, 2007). In 2006, the Agency directed 1,342 examinations of food related occurrences including prominent cases like the salmonella flare-up connected with chocolate, benzene in sodas and the unapproved genetically adjusted living being (GMO) contamination of U.S. rice (FSA, 2007).

Recently, persistence of foodborne bacterial pathogens in food processing environments has become of great impacting hazards to the public health as well as increases risk of microbial food contamination (Pricope et al., 2013; Larsen et al.,

Toxins are poisons produced by living organisms. Epidemics of staphylococcal food poisoning are very common across the world. But, there is hardly any report of SFP from the Indian subcontinent. An outbreak occurred in Indian country, the Madhya Pradesh’s state after the ingestion of a snack that made up with potato balls fried in vegetable oil, called “Bhalla”. More than 100 children and adults who ate the snack suffered from the normal side effects of SFP and required hospitalization. From the clinical sample of food, there were found a large number of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus that appeared (Vijay et al., 2007). Hence, one of the seven enterotoxins that produced by strains of Staphylococcus aureus was Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).