Conference presentation
The global epidemiology of botulism outbreaks from open-source intelligence, 2017–2024
World One Health Congress, 9th (Libson, Portugal, 04/09/2026–07/09/2026)
04/09/2026
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Abstract
Botulism is a rare but potentially fatal illness caused by botulinum neurotoxin, with outbreaks reported globally in humans, animals, and the environment. In the absence of a global surveillance system, open-source intelligence (OSINT) offers real-time insight into botulism activity.
Using the Artificial-Intelligence-driven OSINT early warning system EPIWATCH®, we extracted a dataset published between 31 December 2016 and 1 January 2025 and filtered by our search terms to identify botulism outbreaks. Data collected included country, event date, location, symptoms, outbreak type (human/animal), case numbers, hospitalisations, antitoxin treatment, deaths, source and origin of outbreak, botulism type, toxin strain, and time from exposure to symptom onset. Analyses were conducted using STATA/BE 17.0.
OSINT identified 296 botulism outbreaks, of which 259 (87.5 %) were in humans, totalling 1097 cases and 47 deaths. There were 37 animal outbreaks (12.5 %), accounting for 27,537 cases and 27,287 animal deaths. The highest number of human outbreaks occurred in Ukraine (56.0 %, n = 145), the Russian Federation (10.8 %, n = 28), and the United States of America (7.0 %, n = 18). Common symptoms included dysphagia (11.0 %), nausea (9.0 %), and generalised weakness (8.8 %). The primary transmission routes were foodborne (79.5 %), iatrogenic (3.1 %) and wound (3.1 %, n = 8). The most frequently implicated sources were dried fish (33.2 %), canned fish (5.4 %) and canned meat (4.6 %, n = 12). Toxin strain was rarely reported (97.7 %).
OSINT-based surveillance, despite some limitations, provides a new mechanism for insight into global botulism patterns, particularly where traditional reporting is limited.
•296 global botulism outbreaks were identified using OSINT from 2017 to 2024.•EPIWATCH® detected outbreaks in 37 countries, mostly in humans.•Foodborne botulism was the leading transmission route, often via dried fish.•Botulism strain data were rarely reported in public sources.•OSINT offers valuable surveillance in settings lacking official reporting.
Details
- Title
- The global epidemiology of botulism outbreaks from open-source intelligence, 2017–2024
- Creators
- Damian Honeyman - UNSW SydneyDavid James Heslop - UNSW SydneyChandini Raina MacIntyre - UNSW Sydney
- Conference
- World One Health Congress, 9th (Libson, Portugal, 04/09/2026–07/09/2026)
- Identifiers
- 991013403224802368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Health
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation