Bacillus cereus is ubiquitous in nature, and while most isolates appear to be harmless, some are associated with food-borne illnesses, periodontal diseases, and more serious infections. Moreover, emerging B. cereus strains that cause anthrax-like disease have been isolated in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. These strains are particular, because although they belong to the B. cereus species genetically speaking, they harbor two plasmids, pBCXO1 and pBCOX2, that are very similar to the pOX1 and pOX2 plasmids of Bacillus anthracis that encode the toxins and the polyglutamate capsule, respectively. Around one hundred strains of Bacillus cereus from different origins (environment, clinical and food) deposited at the Collection de l’Institut Pasteur (CIP)  are studied and whole genome sequencing has been performed in order to characterize the pathogenicity of the strains by looking for virulence genes and by comparing the strains (genes of interest), depending on their origin.