Panosis: a new word or a forgotten world?

There is no evidence for the eyes that do not want to see but for the determined and eager heart willing to learn and understand Having always worked in the veterinary field, I had never seriously considered the potential role that antimicrobial-resistant bacteria released to the environment by livestock could play in plant health status. In fact, I had no notion whether the use of antibiotics for crop protection was significantly widespread or what legal framework, if any, applied to the issue within the European Union (E.U.), the United States of America (U.S.), and other developed countries. Having observed that streptomycin and tetra-cycline (1) have been two of the molecules of choice in agriculture for decades and noticing the lack of E.U. and U.S. federal legislation concerning these substances, including banning them for this purpose , I realized that a more global explanation of the origin of the growing resistance of some animal and human microbes relating to the effects of malpractice in agriculture on veterinary therapeutics and human medicine treatments was necessary. These thoughts led me down paths that had little to do with my original idea as I wondered whether any of the plant bacterial pathogenic species would equally be capable of affecting vertebrate animals and humans. I checked various lists of the major causative agents of plant diseases and reached a startling conclusion: some microorganisms are responsible for infections and morbid processes in both the vegetable and animal kingdoms, derived from their similar molecular basis and mechanisms of patho-genesis. That is the case for different Gram-negative rods, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholde-ria cepacia, as well as the Deuteromycete fungus Aspergillus niger (Table 1), demonstrating that flora and fauna, including humans, represent not separate , independent worlds but two interacting sides of the same reality. These shared pathogenic conditions whose connections were never studied in a comprehensive way also generate a more complex topic: a new term must be coined for infections that living The Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health publishes letters from readers for the purpose of stimulating dialogue on various aspects of public health in the Americas and of constructively clarifying, discussing, and critiquing the ideas expressed throughout its pages. Letters should be signed by the author and include his or her professional affiliation and mailing address. If a commentary on a given article requires a reply from the author, …