Botulism is a rare but potentially fatal disease that is caused by contaminated food items.
There are two varieties of botulism, Adult and Infant. The adult botulism occurs because of the presence of the botulism bacterium that is commonly found in soil. It also occurs occasionally in fish. Infants, on the other hand, become ill because they have eaten the spores of the clostridium botulinum bacterium. The most common way for an infant to ingest these spores are through honey but they can also develop the illness due to corn syrup.