NOTE 1 In order to have a practicable test method, the confirmatory stage has been restricted to the typical aspect on MYP agar and the haemolysis test. Thus the term “presumptive” has been introduced in order to acknowledge the fact that the confirmatory stage does not enable the distinction of B. cereus from other closely related but less commonly encountered Bacillus species, such as B. anthracis, B. thuringiensis, B. weihenstephanensis, B. mycoides. An additional motility test may help to differentiate B. cereus from B. anthracis in cases where the presence of the latter is suspected.

NOTE 2 The diversity within the Bacillus cereus group is large with 7 phylogenetic groups^[21][22] and a growing number of species.