geonosis

thumb|Colonies of the bacterial sapronosis Legionella pneumophila A sapronosis is an infectious disease caused by an organism that is able to live and reproduce in the soil or an other abiotic environment, and infects a living host directly from that environment. One widely-known example of a sapronosis is Legionnaires' disease. Approximately a third of all known disease organisms are sapronoses. Almost all fungal infections are sapronoses, but there are no known sapronotic viruses.

Occupation often plays a role in sapronoses: people working with the soil, such as farmers or gardeners, are often at particularly high risk. Sporotrichosis, a fungal sapronosis, is for example sometimes known as "rose handler's disease".