What are Bacillus cereus and Bacillus anthracis?
Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming, Gram positive, facultative anaerobic bacterium associated with food poisoning in humans. The food poisoning is a result of ingesting heat-stable enterotoxins produced by the bacteria: either a thermostable emetic enterotoxin or a thermosensitive diarrhoegenic enterotoxin. B. cereus is widespread in the soil and the food industry, in such foods as herbs, spices, milk and vegetables. Transmission of this disease results not only from contaminated foods, but improper food handling/storage and improper cooling of cooked foodstuffs.
