ABSTRACT
Infant botulism is the newly recognized infectious form of botulism in which ingested spores of Clostridium botulinum germinate, multiply, and produce botulinal toxin in the intestinal lumen of the patient. The failure of some studies to find C. botulinum in SIDS autopsy specimens may reflect geographical variation in incidence or in methodology. Because infants are fed a limited diet consisting mainly of milk, it seemed possible that different milk diets might affect the severity of infant botulism by creating different conditions in the infant intestine. Of the several hundred food items fed to California patients who subsequently developed infant botulism, only honey was found to contain C. botulinum spores. Several animal models have been developed that provide, by analogy, some insight into the pathogenesis of infant botulism. Using infant mice as a model, Sugiyama and Mills experimentally reproduced the limited age of susceptibility to infant botulism that had been observed clinically in humans.
