Researchers keep mum on botulism discovery

Scientists have discovered a new strain — the first in 40 years — of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that is ultimately responsible for causing botulism. And although they have reported their findings in a scientific journal, the investigators have taken the extraordinary step of withholding key details of the discovery. That’s because the toxins made by C. botulinum are the most dangerous known to humankind and currently there is no antidote for a toxin generated by the new strain. The fear is that malevolent organizations or rogue governments might use the information to reverse engineer their own version of the new bug, making it a potent and real bioterrorism threat.

C. botulinum toxin is high on the list of feared biological weapons because minute quantities can fatally paralyze people who swallow or breathe it. It is known or suspected to have been part of bioweapon programs in countries such as the Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Syria, and was used, fortunately ineptly, in Tokyo in the early 1990s by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo before they turned to the nerve agent sarin.