Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis from archival bone samples.

Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis (Bcbva) was the causative agent of anthrax-like fatal disease among wild chimpanzees in 2001 in Cote d Ivoire. Before this, description of anthrax like disease caused by typically avirulent Bacillus cereus had not been described. Genetic analysis found that B. cereus had acquired two anthrax-like plasmids, one a pXO1-like toxin producing plasmid and the other a pXO2-like plasmid encoding capsule. Bcbva caused animal fatalities in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic between 2004 and 2012. The pathogen had acquired plasmids in the wild and that was discovered as the cause of widespread animal fatalities in the early 2000s. Primate bones had been shipped out of the endemic zone for anthropological studies prior to the realized danger of contamination with Bcbva. Preliminary studies positively identified Bcbva was present in several archival bone fragments. The animals in question died between 1994 and 2010. Previously the earliest archival strains of Bcbva were identified in 1996. Our strains have the potential to unveil historical genomic information not available elsewhere. This information could shed light on the evolution and emergence of a dangerous anthrax-causing pathogen.