Clostridium baratii

Clostridium baratii
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Phylum:	Bacillota
Class:	Clostridia
Order:	Eubacteriales
Family:	Clostridiaceae
Genus:	Clostridium
Species:	C. baratii
Binomial name
Clostridium baratii (Prévot 1938) Holdeman and Moore 1970
Synonyms
"Acuformis perennis" Prévot 1940 Clostridium barati (Prévot 1938) Holdeman and Moore 1970 Clostridium perenne (Prévot 1940) McClung and McCoy 1957 Clostridium paraperfringens Nakamura et al. 1970 "Inflabilis barati" Prévot 1938

Clostridium baratii is an anaerobic, motile, gram-positive bacterium. It is a rare cause of infant botulism, in which newborns or infants lose their muscle tone, and develop trouble feeding due to a difficulty in breathing, which can be fatal. Newborns can recover spontaneously or as in two known cases improve with injected botulism antitoxin. As of 2015^[update], the environmental source of this bacterium is unknown, despite extensive investigations when cases have occurred. It is named after Barat who is a French bacteriologist.^[1]