Bacillus cereus is a common foodborne pathogen that can cause both gastrointestinal and nongastrointestinal diseases. In this study, we collected 603 meat and meat products from 39 major cities in China. The positive contamination rate of B. cereus in the collected samples was 26.37% (159/603), and the contamination level in 5.03% (8/159) positive samples exceeded 1100 most probable number/g. The detection rates of virulence genes were 89.7% for the nheABC gene group, 37.1% for the hblACD gene cluster, 82.3% for cytK-2, and 2.9% for cesB. Notably, all isolates presented with multiple antibiotic resistance, and 99.43% of isolates were resistant to five classes of antibiotics. In addition, the multilocus sequence typing results indicated that all isolates were rich in genetic diversity. Collectively, we conducted a systematic investigation on the prevalence and characterization of B. cereus in meat and meat products in China, providing crucial information for assessing the risk of B. cereus occurrence in meat and meat products.
Keywords: Bacillus cereus; foodborne pathogen; meat and meat product; multiple antibiotic resistance; virulence gene.