Botulism is an extremely rare, but dangerous disease. It is a paralytic illness caused by the bacterium “Colostrum botulism” and sometimes strains of “ Colostrum”. In the United States there is an average of 22 people that get food borne botulism a year. 

According to Foodsafety.gov and Center for Disease Control The symptoms for adults include double vision, blurred vision, droopy eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, muscle weakness, constipation,and weakened gag reflex. The symptoms for infants are weakness, poor feeding, constipation,poor head control, poor gag and sucking reflex.

The New York State Department of Heath and MedicineNet say that Foodborne Botulism is mostly caused by eating contaminated home-canned food and you can get it by having bacteria that produces toxin in food. If you are diagnosed early then botulism can be cured with an antitoxin that blocks the action circulation in the blood. The antitoxin prevents it from spreading, but the recovery still takes a long time. 

MedicineNet says that the Botulism toxin blocks the signals sent by the brain. So the muscles do not contract because they don't get the electrical message sent from the brain.

Botulism can not be passed down from person to person.