Unintended consequences: Renaming botulinum neurotoxin-producing species of clostridium and related species.

Carolina Lúquez, Jessica L Halpin, Janet Dykes

Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology 2023 Mar 01

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Botulinum neurotoxin-producing species of Clostridium are highly diverse. Clostridium botulinum could represent at least four different species of Clostridium. In addition, strains that do not produce botulinum neurotoxin are closely related to toxigenic strains, probably representing the same species. Although reclassification of these organisms has been proposed in the past, their species names have remained unchanged, mainly because of the premise that changing names of medically relevant organisms might cause confusion in the healthcare and scientific community. In this review, we discuss the possible unintended consequences of reclassifying botulinum neurotoxin-producing species of Clostridium, which are of public health, medical, and biodefense interest. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Citation

Carolina Lúquez, Jessica L Halpin, Janet Dykes. Unintended consequences: Renaming botulinum neurotoxin-producing species of clostridium and related species. Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology. 2023 Mar 01;224:107036