12.00pm Monday, 4 December
Room 208
2nd floor, Microbiology Building
720 Cumberland St
Dr Alex Hoffmaster
Team Leader, Zoonoses and Select Agent Laboratory
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Bacillus cereus and Bacillus anthracis are very closely related; however, they are associated with very different diseases. B. anthracis is the cause of anthrax while B. cereus is an opportunistic pathogen most commonly associated with food-borne illness. The major difference between the species is their plasmids and their role in virulence. The plasmid content of the B. cereus group is diverse and variable with the exception of B. anthracis, which is only known to harbour its two large virulence plasmids, pXO1 and pXO2, which encode the anthrax toxins and capsule respectively. Clinical strains of B. cereus have now been described which harbour anthrax plasmid genes and have been associated with human and non-human primate infections. These strains have caused a variety of illnesses including fatal infections, pneumonia, and cutaneous lesions. This presentation will summarise what we know about these strains, their plasmids, and the infections they cause.
This seminar is kindly sponsored by: The Otago Global Health Institute
