Botulism is

Question

Botulism is

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Food-borne intoxication. Classic botulism results from eating food — typically improperly canned, bottled or fermented low-acid food — in which the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum has already produced its botulinum neurotoxin. The illness is caused by swallowing this pre-formed toxin, not by the microbe colonising and multiplying inside the body; that makes it an 'intoxication' rather than an 'infection', and the vehicle is food, not water. Hence botulism is a food-borne intoxication.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Wrong — in a true food-borne infection (e.g. typhoid, salmonellosis) the living pathogen must be swallowed and then multiply in the gut or tissues to cause disease. Classic foodborne botulism is caused by a toxin already formed in the food before it is eaten, so it is an intoxication, not an infection.  (c) Wrong on both counts — botulism's classic route is preserved food, not drinking water, and it is a toxin-mediated intoxication, not an infection by a multiplying organism as in cholera or typhoid.  (d) Wrong route — the pre-formed toxin does reach us by ingestion, but through contaminated food, not water; botulinum toxin is not a typical water-borne agent.

Concept: Food-borne illnesses split into two types. An 'infection' is caused by swallowing living pathogens that then multiply inside the body (e.g. Salmonella typhi). An 'intoxication' (food poisoning proper) is caused by swallowing a toxin already produced in the food by microbes — the microbe need not even be alive when eaten. Botulism is the textbook intoxication: Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic spore-forming bacterium, grows in sealed low-acid foods and secretes botulinum toxin, one of the most potent neurotoxins known, which blocks acetylcholine release and causes flaccid paralysis.

State PCS 2021 Q21 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q21 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer