I can't answer your question for C Botulinum. But many times we are just in the middle of warfare. That is, it is an accident we are harmed.
For instance, Corynebacterium Diphtheriae is not lethal per se, but then comes a virus that infects the bacteria, and kills the bacteria, and a byproduct of the virus causes the bacteria to cause diphteria. The phage (the bacteria virus) provides no advantage to C diphteriae.
My hypothesis for clostridiums, that includes C botulinum, is that they do want to kill their host, however. They kind of kill the planet they live in as they can thrive in the carcass while it lasts. So, deathly clostridiums have this at least short term advantage over non deathly ones.
C. tetani, perfrigens, botulinum and difficile can all kill you. However, C. perfrigens does it differently, by diggesting you before killing you, "on the fly" or "just in time"
For instance, Corynebacterium Diphtheriae is not lethal per se, but then comes a virus that infects the bacteria, and kills the bacteria, and a byproduct of the virus causes the bacteria to cause diphteria. The phage (the bacteria virus) provides no advantage to C diphteriae.
My hypothesis for clostridiums, that includes C botulinum, is that they do want to kill their host, however. They kind of kill the planet they live in as they can thrive in the carcass while it lasts. So, deathly clostridiums have this at least short term advantage over non deathly ones.
C. tetani, perfrigens, botulinum and difficile can all kill you. However, C. perfrigens does it differently, by diggesting you before killing you, "on the fly" or "just in time"