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Botulism (or Lamziekte disease) causes fatal paralysis of the motor system. It is not an infectious disease, but is instead an intoxication that comes from ingesting food that is contaminated by Clostridium botulinum, the spore-forming bacterium that produces the toxin and releases it through the blood stream.. "Food" includes feedlot silage and decaying carcasses consumed by animals. There are eight types and sub-types, three of which dominate human cases, four which are prominent in animal outbreaks and one which has not been known to cause harm to either animals or humans. Incidence in animals, beginning at the lowest end of the scale, are cattle and horses, and progressing upwards from sheep, mink, pheasant, chickens, to the highest - wild waterfowl. Avian botulism causes mass fatalities in ducks, geese, gulls, loons - as many as 50,000 birds lost annually.
Botulism is also considered a potential bioterrorist weapon. In that context, the natural pathogen would not be expected to play a role, but rather the actual toxin produced from the bacterium in laboratories. A very small amount, just several nanograms, can induce illness.
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