Discrimination among Bacillus cereus, B. mycoides and B. thuringiensis and some other species of the genus Bacillus by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in conjunction with canonical variate analysis was found to be effective in discriminating among spectra of 9 representative strains of Bacillus spp., including B. cereus, B. mycoides and B. thuringiensis. The method was also able to discriminate according to species among spectra of 14 other non-type strains of B. cereus, 12 of B. mycoides and 12 of B. thuringiensis with a success rate of > 95%, even without using a prior classification of the groups by species. FTIR spectroscopy can be used for the rapid and accurate differentiation of species in the genus Bacillus that are of importance to the food and dairy industry.