Foodborne Botulism in Canadian Indigenous Communities Greatly Decreased During 2006–2021
During 2006–2021, Canada saw 55 laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of foodborne botulism, according to a recent article published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The 55 outbreaks of foodborne Clostridium botulinuminfection involved 67 individual cases.
To characterize the history of foodborne botulism in Canada from 2006–2021, researchers examined two independent laboratory databases, one from Health Canada’s Botulism Reference Service (BRS) and the other from the British Columbia Center for Disease Control’s (BCCDC’s) Public Health Laboratory. BRS receives and tests clinical and food specimens associated with suspected botulism cases from all provinces and territories, while BCCDC’s Public Health Laboratory provides clinical and foodborne botulism testing services for British Columbia, and also tests specimens from the Yukon Territory.