Ubber (yet newbie) Foodblogger, Foodsnark (watch out Barfblog), beat me to another botulism story. The Snark found an article by Jared Taylor, of the South Texas Monitor – Botulism or not? – Bad oysters caused botulism, consumer says

Whether the lawyer has botulism or picked-up some other disease from this bottom-feeding, bivalve (no I’m not talking about other lawyers), my point is that I just don’t think you should eat oysters, raw or canned.  In addition to botulism, other diseases carried by these mollusks can be found at this Clemson University website.

We are representing folks from two earlier Botulism problems – one in Nevada and the other in Hawaii.  Foodborne botulism (as distinct from wound botulism and infant botulism) is a severe type of food poisoning caused by the ingestion of foods containing the potent neurotoxin formed during growth of the organism. The toxin is heat labile and can be destroyed if heated at 80°C for 10 minutes or longer. The incidence of the disease is low, but the disease is of considerable concern because of its high mortality rate if not treated immediately and properly. Most of the 10 to 30 outbreaks that are reported annually in the United States are associated with inadequately processed, home-canned foods, but occasionally commercially produced foods have been involved in outbreaks. Sausages, meat products, canned vegetables and seafood products have been the most frequent vehicles for human botulism.

We have seen both Hepatitis A and Vibrio illnesses related to oyster consumption. Although we do not take illnesses related to the eating (slurping) raw seafood, we do track the outbreaks at www.foodpoisonblog.com.