saprozoonosis

A zoonosis, the agent of which requires both a vertebrate host and a nonanimal (food, soil, plant) reservoir or developmental site for completion of its life cycle. Combination terms may be used, such as saprometazoonoses for fluke infections, when metacercariae encyst on plants, or saprocyclozoonoses for tick infestations, whose agents complete part of their life cycles in soil. [sapro- + G. zoon, animal, + nosos, disease]