Bacillus cereusis ubiquitous in the environment and a well-known causative agent of foodborne disease. Surprisingly, more and more emerging strains of atypicalB. cereushave been identified and related to severe disease in humans and mammals such as chimpanzees, apes, and bovine. Recently, the atypicalB. cereusisolates, which mainly derive from North America and Africa, have drawn great attention due to the potential risk of zoonosis. The cluster ofB. cereuscarries several anthrax-like virulent genes that are implicated in lethal disease. However, in non-mammals, the distribution of atypicalB. cereusis still unknown. In this study, we conducted a retrospective screening of the 32 isolates ofBacillusspp. from diseased Chinese soft-shelled turtles from 2016 to 2020. To recognize the causative agent, we used various methods, such as sequencing analysis using PCR-amplification of the 16S rRNA gene, multiplex PCR for discriminating, and colony morphology by following previous studies. Furthermore, the digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) and average nucleotide identity (ANI) values were calculated, respectively, below the 70 and 96% cutoff to define species boundaries. According to the summarized results, the pathogen is taxonomically classified asBacillus tropicusstr. JMT (previous atypicalBacillus cereus). Subsequently, analyses such as targeting the unique genes using PCR and visual observation of the bacteria under various staining techniques were implemented in our study. Our findings show that all (32/32, 100%) isolates in this retrospective screening share similar phenotypical properties and carry the protective antigen (PA), edema factor (EF), hyaluronic acid (HA), and exopolysaccharide (Bps) genes on their plasmids. In this study, the results indicate that the geographic distribution and host range ofB. tropicuswere previously underestimated.