Key points
- CDC collects, analyzes, and disseminates national surveillance data on bacterial foodborne illnesses, including botulism.
- Surveillance for cases and outbreaks of botulism in the United States is conducted through several surveillance systems.
- In addition, clinical consultation facilitates collection of information on suspected cases of botulism.
Role of Public Health Agencies
Several public health agencies in the United States provide clinical consultation and antitoxin, when indicated, for suspected cases of botulism. They are:
- Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program at the California Department of Public Health
Botulism case consultations provide expert guidance to clinicians. Consultations also facilitate the collection of information for all suspected botulism cases reported in the United States.
Because these agencies are the only sources of antitoxin in the United States, all or almost all recognized cases of botulism are recorded.*
*Some cases might not be recognized either because of misdiagnosis or because mildly affected persons might not seek medical care.
Transmission categories
For surveillance purposes, CDC categorizes human botulism cases into four transmission subtypes:
- Foodborne botulism
- Wound botulism
- Infant botulism
- "Other" botulism (includes adult intestinal colonization, iatrogenic botulism, and unknown routes of transmission)
Case surveillance
National case surveillance for botulism is made of two components, case reporting and case notification.
Case reporting
Cases of laboratory-confirmed botulism are reported to CDC through the National Botulism Surveillance System (NBSS).
Annual summaries
See summaries for earlier years on CDC Stacks >
Case notification
State and local health departments send de-identified data about confirmed cases botulism to CDC through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS).
Outbreak information
National Outbreak Reporting System collects information on outbreaks of botulism in the United States.
To learn about the Clostridium botulinum outbreaks reported to CDC:
- Go to NORS Dashboard
- Set your search parameters, being sure to select "Clostridium" as the etiology
- At the bottom of the page, select "Download current search data"
- Sort by "Genus Species" or select the arrow next to that heading to select only "Clostridium botulinum"