describe bactrial toxin is and the potentail outcome if consumed in food?

Answer 1

Julie,

Your question is a bit bigger than you may think. There are about as many bacterial toxins as there are bacteria. Every living creature secretes a toxin of some sort--yeast make alcohol which will eventually kill them, we make carbon dioxide which will eventually kill us, and bacteria...well, bacteria make their own toxins.

Some bacteria have cell walls that are toxic to us, and some make a secretion that is. These last are among the most powerful poisons known, many times more poisonous than strychnine or snake venom (any snake).

These toxins are proteins that act like enzymes (casuing the destruction of cell membranes) and quite often attack neurons. Tetanus, botulism, and shigella (a close relative to E. coli which causes diarrhea and dysentery) all produce a neurotoxin which will cause a kind of paralysis in some places in the body.

Other bacteria, like streptococci, have a broad-based toxin that causes the destruction of many kinds of cell walls, kill the cells, and add their dead material to the toxins that make us sick.

Then there are some which, like anthrax, kill but we're not entirely sure how.

Fortunately, all of this type of bacterial toxins are broken down and destroyed by heat. So, cook the food and it becomes safe.

As far as the effects of ingesting them goes, it depends on the bacterium invoved. E. coli causes diarrhea at first, then bloody diarrhea, but that can progress to anemia and kidney failure, especially in children and the elderly. The most common treatment is to drink plenty of water to flush out the bacteria. If a child has it and becomes dehydrated, the emergency room is the right place to go.

Another common one is staphlycoccus aureus, one that very often causes food poisoning. You might have met this one, in fact. It causes the nausea and diarrhea that we know so well, as well as a number of other afflictions (like boils, pneumonia, adn toxic shock syndrome. A really versatile bacterium).

In short, what happens to you depends on what bacterium you ingest, but usualy what will happen with the most common ones is diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. Normally the infection doesn't progress beyond this in otherwise healthy people, but in the very young and the very old it could, so if a young adult gets these symptoms, don't worry about it unless it gets pretty bad. If a young child or an elderly person starts to show these symptoms, a trip to the doctor or emergency room would be prudent.


If you have a question about this that I didn't answer, please put it in the "details" section of your question.

Answer 2

Botulism, caused by a domant bacteria spore, that causes muscle cramp and seizure.