Frontiers opens a veterinary immunology forum on host defense and microbiota
Frontiers in Immunology has opened a Research Topic focused on animal immunity, host defense, and the interplay between immune function and resident microbial communities. The call is aimed at work across animal species, with a particular emphasis on livestock and companion animals, where infection pressure, nutrition, age, environment, and management practices can all alter immune competence and microbial ecology at the same time.
The editorial framing is broad but clinically grounded. Investigators are being invited to submit studies that examine innate and adaptive immune responses, immune development, inflammation, immunomodulation, host–pathogen interactions, and biomarkers of immune activation or dysfunction. Microbiota-centered work is welcome as well, especially when it helps explain dysbiosis, microbial metabolites, or bidirectional communication between the host and its resident flora.
A submission deadline has been set for 7 May 2027.
Why immune biology and microbiota cannot be separated in animal health
Animal health is rarely determined by a single pathway. Immune cells do not act in isolation, and microbial communities are not passive passengers. In practice, the mucosal surfaces, gut ecosystem, and systemic immune network operate as a linked defense system: the microbiota influences immune maturation and tolerance, while immune pressure can reshape which organisms persist, expand, or fail to recover after stress or infection.
That reciprocity matters in veterinary settings because disease resistance, inflammatory balance, and recovery can shift quickly under real-world conditions. A neonatal animal entering life with an immature immune system faces a different biological problem than an adult animal managing chronic inflammation or repeated infectious exposure. When those immune transitions are studied separately from the microbiome, important mechanisms can be missed, especially the ones that govern resilience after infection or tissue injury.
The Research Topic is designed to connect mechanistic immunology with microbiome science
The topic editors are asking for submissions that move beyond siloed analysis. Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, Case Reports, Study Protocols, Methods papers, and other listed formats are all eligible within scope, provided they fit the journal’s mission and pass peer review.
The scientific themes reach from classical immunology to modern systems biology. Innate and adaptive immunity remain central, but the call also stretches into omics-based investigation, molecular profiling, and integrated host-response datasets. In practical terms, that means a study of inflammatory biomarkers in an infected herd can sit alongside a microbiome analysis of dysbiosis after antibiotic exposure, so long as the work advances understanding of host defense or immune regulation.
The inclusion of microbiota–immune crosstalk is especially relevant for veterinary medicine. Microbial metabolites can shape epithelial integrity, influence inflammatory signaling, and alter immune tone. In turn, stress, infection, and altered feeding practices can disrupt microbial balance, creating a biologic feedback loop that may worsen susceptibility or prolong recovery.
Neonatal immunity, infection, and inflammation sit at the center of the agenda
Several of the invited themes point directly toward bedside and barn-level relevance. Neonatal and developmental immunity is one of the most important examples, because early-life immune programming can influence infection risk and long-term resistance. Host–pathogen interactions remain equally central, especially in infectious disease settings where inflammation can be protective in one phase and harmful in another.
Inflammation and immune regulation deserve the same level of attention. Excessive activation can damage tissue, but inadequate activation can leave the host unable to contain pathogens. That balance is not abstract in animal care; it determines whether an infection is controlled locally, becomes systemic, or leaves behind prolonged functional impairment.
One sentence captures the biological logic of the topic. Immune dysfunction and dysbiosis often travel together, and separating them can obscure the mechanism of disease.
A broad translational brief for veterinary medicine and animal production
The Research Topic is positioned as more than a journal exercise. Its stated aim is to improve understanding of disease resistance, immune dysfunction, and health maintenance in ways that are relevant to both veterinary medicine and animal production. That dual focus is important, because the same biological systems that affect individual animal welfare also shape herd health, productivity, and recovery after infectious outbreaks.
The call also reflects the current direction of comparative immunology. Researchers increasingly study host defense as an integrated system that includes cells, microbial products, tissue barriers, and molecular signatures. Multi-omics approaches can deepen that analysis by linking gene expression, microbial composition, and immune readouts in a single framework. For animal health, that can help clarify why two animals with similar exposures do not develop the same disease trajectory.
Editorial leadership and topic scope
The Research Topic is being led within Frontiers in Immunology’s Comparative Immunology section. Francesca Aragona and Francesco Fazio of the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Messina serve as topic editors, while Alexandra Nicoleta Muresan of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca and Ömer Deniz of Kastamonu University are listed as topic coordinators.
The scope remains anchored to the mission of the section and journal, and manuscripts that fall outside that scope may be redirected during peer review. The journal also makes clear that accepted papers incur publication fees, which may be paid by authors, institutions, or funders depending on the submission arrangement.
For investigators working in veterinary immunology, infectious disease, or microbiome science, the opening creates a single venue for mechanistic work that has often been scattered across separate literatures. The strength of the call lies in its flexibility: studies can focus entirely on immune biology or explicitly integrate microbiota data, as long as they advance a clearer view of how animals defend themselves, how that defense fails, and how recovery begins.