system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If a person with a certain communicable disease dies of it and is buried, do the said pathogens continue to live, multiply and spread in the soil?

By extension, like how vaccination improves herd health, shouldn't incineration be a preferred mode of disposal of the dead rather than burial?
gpt
This will depend on the pathogen in question. Some examples:

Anthrax can survive in soil after the host is dead, although the bacteria aren't actively multiplying (instead, they form spores).

Prions can also persist in soil ("survive" is the wrong word here because they're not alive).