Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch

National Botulism Laboratory Team

The National Botulism Laboratory Team (NBLT) maintains CDC expertise for laboratory investigations of botulism, and provides training to U.S. and international public health laboratories. NBLT outbreak activities include detection and serotyping of botulinum neurotoxin, and the isolation and identification of botulinum-toxin-producing Clostridia. NBLT also develops and validates new detection and identification methods for the enhancement of the U.S. response to bioterrorism events involving botulinum toxin.

Publications

Luquez C, Raphael BH, Maslanka SE. Analysis of neurotoxin gene clusters in Clostridium botulinum type Ab strains. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2009 [in press]

Yu Patricia A, Maslanka Susan E., St.Louis Michael E, and Swerdlow David L. 2009. Botulism. In Bacterial Infections of Humans. Eds: A.S. Evans, P.S. Brachman. Springer Science, 2009.

Jacobson MJ, Lin G, Raphael B, Andreadis J, Johnson EA. 2008. Analysis of neurotoxin cluster genes in Clostridium botulinum strains producing botulinum neurotoxin serotype A subtypes. Appl Environ Microbiol. 74(9):2778-86.

Raphael BH, Luquez C, McCroskey LM, Joseph LA, Jacobson MJ, Johnson EA, Maslanka
SE, Andreadis JD. 2008. Genetic homogeneity of Clostridium botulinum type A1 strains with unique toxin gene clusters. Appl Environ Microbiol. 74(14):4390-7.

Sheth, AN, Wiersma, P,. Atrubin D, Dubey V, Zink D, Skinner G, Doerr F, Juliao P, Gonzalez G, Burnett C. Drenzek C, Shuler C, Austin J, Ellis A, Maslanka S, Sobel J. International outbreak of severe botulism with prolonged toxemia caused by commercial carrot juice. Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Nov 15;46(10):1245-1251