Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My partner and I are growing bacillus cereus, which causes food poisoning, on petri plates and we need to know all of the possible ways that bacillus cereus can harm us.Is it possible that humans can get infected by bacillus cereus other than by ingesting through food?

Hi Kevin,

This is a really great project idea!

You have a very good question. Bacillus cereus is a common bacterium found in dust and soil and does not infect humans directly. It causes a problem when it grows in food and produces heat stable toxins that cause an acute intestinal illness with an abrupt onset. B. cereus forms heat-resistant endospores and grows well in high carbohydrate foods like rice, so has been associated with food poisoning in Chinese restaurants.

You should review the information from the Science Buddies website on working with potentially hazardous biological agents. You may need to get prior approval for doing this project and you should be doing the work in a laboratory.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-

The Wikipedia article on Bacillus cereus includes a good description of this bacterium and of the food poisoning it causes. There are several references included in the bibliography, which should be helpful for background reading for your project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus

What is the purpose of your project? What are you doing for your experiment?

Please post again if you have more questions.

Donna Hardy