This handbook provides basic facts regarding foodborne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins, including their characteristics, habitat or source, associated foods, infective dose, characteristic disease symptoms, complications, recent and/or major outbreaks, and any susceptible populations. Some technical terms have been linked to the National Library of Medicine's Entrez glossary. Recent articles from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports have been added to selected chapters to update the handbook with information on later outbreaks or incidents of foodborne disease; hypertext links are included to relevant Entrez abstracts and GenBank genetic loci.