In dry heat (grilling, broiling, baking, roasting, searing, sautéing), for 1 hour kills all spores on the exposed surface. This process of eliminating spores is very important, as spores of B. cereus are particularly resistant, even after pasteurization or exposure to gamma rays. B. cereus and other members of Bacillus are not easily killed by alcohol; they have been known to colonize distilled liquors and alcohol-soaked swabs and pads in numbers sufficient to cause infection. A study of an isolate of Bacillus cereus that was isolated from the stomach of a sheep was shown to be able to break down β-cypermethrin, or β-CY, which has been known to be an antimicrobial agent. This strain, known as GW-01, can break down β-CY at a significant rate when the bacterial cells are in high concentrations relative to the antimicrobial agent. It has also been noted that the ability to break down β-CY is inducible. However, as the concentration of β-CY increases, the rate of β-CY degradation decreases. This suggests that the agent also functions as a toxin against the GW-01 strain. This is significant as it shows that in the right concentrations, β-CY can be used as an antimicrobial agent against Bacillus cereus. Diseases in aquatic animals Bacillus cereus groups, notably B. cereus (Bc) and B. thuringiensis (Bt), are also pathogenic to multiple aquatic organisms including Chinese softshell turtle ( Pelodiscus sinensis ), causing infection characterized by gross lesions such as hepatic congestion and enlarged spleen, which causes high mortality. Bacteriophages Bacteria of the B. cereus group are infected by bacteriophages belonging to the family Tectiviridae. This family includes tailless phages that have a lipid membrane or vesicle beneath the icosahedral protein shell and that are formed of approximately equal amounts of virus-encoded proteins and lipids derived from the host cell's plasma membrane. Upon infection, the lipid membrane becomes a tail-like structure used in genome delivery. The genome is composed of about 15-kilobase, linear, double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) with long, inverted terminal-repeat sequences (100 base pairs). GIL01, Bam35, GIL16, AP50, and Wip1 are examples of temperate tectiviruses infecting the B. cereus group. See also Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis References External links Bacillus cereus genomes and related information at PATRIC, a Bioinformatics Resource Center funded by NIAID Type strain of Bacillus cereus at BacDive – the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase cereus Foodborne illnesses Bacteria described in 1887