Zoonotic Diseases | Interview with One of the Authors—Prof. Dr. Tawfik Aboellail

“Acute Phase Extrapulmonary Effects of a High-Dose Influenza A Virus Infection in a Mouse Model of Obesity”
by Saranya Vijayakumar, Saurav Pantha, Brian Wolfe, Qi Zhang, Shristy Budha Magar, Tawfik Aboellail and Santosh Dhakal
Zoonotic Dis. 2025, 5(4), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/zoonoticdis5040031
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0227/5/4/31

The following is an interview with Prof. Dr. Tawfik Aboellail:

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and describe your main research focus?

I am a veterinary anatomic pathologist at Kansas State University with more than 30 years of experience in diagnostic pathology, teaching, and conducting collaborative research. My work has always been at the interface between diagnostic pathology and research. I am particularly interested in infectious disease pathogenesis, comparative and translational pathology, and understanding how diseases manifest differently across animal species and under different host conditions. Over the years, I have worked with a wide range of animal models and naturally occurring diseases, including influenza, COVID-19, and other emerging viral infections. More recently, I have also become interested in digital pathology and the use of artificial intelligence to extract more objective and reproducible information from histologic lesions. What ties much of my work together is the One Health concept—using pathology to understand disease across animals, humans, and their shared environment.

2. Can you tell us more about the relevance of your paper “Acute Phase Extrapulmonary Effects of a High-Dose Influenza A Virus Infection in a Mouse Model of Obesity”? Why did you choose Zoonotic Diseases as a suitable platform to submit it to?

Influenza is usually approached primarily as a respiratory infection, but severe influenza is a systemic disease in many respects. We wanted to determine whether a high infectious dose of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus could produce early extrapulmonary infection or tissue injury and, importantly, whether obesity—an established risk factor for severe influenza—would modify those responses. One of the interesting findings was that, despite high pulmonary viral burdens and substantial lung inflammation, we did not find convincing evidence of productive viral replication or major histologic injury in the extrapulmonary tissues examined during the acute phase. Obesity did, however, influence tissue-specific inflammatory and cytokine responses. To me, that distinction is important: systemic manifestations of influenza do not necessarily mean that the virus is replicating extensively outside the respiratory tract. Host inflammatory responses can be equally important.

Zoonotic Diseases was a logical home for the work because influenza A is fundamentally a One Health and zoonotic disease problem. Influenza viruses circulate among multiple animal species, cross species barriers, and continue to challenge both veterinary and human medicine. The journal provides a platform where animal models, comparative pathology, emerging infections, and human health can be discussed together rather than in isolation.

3. What are the challenges that researchers working in your field usually face?

One major challenge in zoonotic disease research is that these diseases do not respect disciplinary boundaries. Understanding them properly requires virologists, pathologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, clinicians, veterinarians, wildlife specialists, and increasingly computational scientists to work together. Building truly integrated collaborations can be difficult, but it is essential. Another challenge is translating observations from experimental models to naturally occurring disease. No animal model perfectly reproduces human disease, and even within one species, age, sex, obesity, immune status, infectious dose, and route of exposure can substantially alter the outcome. Pathology is particularly valuable here because it provides the morphologic context needed to determine whether a molecular or immunologic change actually translates into tissue injury. Finally, emerging infections often require us to work rapidly while maintaining scientific rigor. That balance between speed and quality became very obvious during COVID-19 and remains important with influenza and other emerging zoonoses.

4. How do you see your research field evolving, and what are the main topics you consider are gaining more and more interest?

I think zoonotic disease research will become increasingly integrated under the One Health framework. We can no longer examine human, domestic animal, wildlife, and environmental health as independent systems. Climate change, changing land use, animal movement, intensive production systems, and increasing contact among wildlife, livestock, and people are continually altering opportunities for pathogens to emerge and cross species barriers. Influenza remains a particularly important example because of its enormous animal reservoirs and capacity for genetic change and interspecies transmission. Emerging coronaviruses and other wildlife-associated viruses will remain major areas of interest as well. I also expect major advances from combining traditional pathology with digital pathology, artificial intelligence, spatial biology, molecular diagnostics, and quantitative image analysis. Pathologists have historically generated extraordinarily rich phenotypic information from tissues. AI and advanced molecular technologies now give us opportunities to quantify that information and integrate it with virology, immunology, transcriptomics, and clinical data. I see that as a very exciting direction.

5. What do you think about the development of open access in the publishing field?

I strongly support the principle of making scientific information broadly accessible. This is particularly important for zoonotic and emerging diseases because outbreaks do not occur only in countries or institutions that can afford expensive journal subscriptions. Veterinarians, physicians, researchers, and public-health professionals in resource-limited settings should be able to access current scientific information. At the same time, open access has to maintain scientific rigor and a strong peer-review process. The value of a publication ultimately comes from the quality of the science, not simply from its accessibility. Publication costs can also become a significant obstacle, particularly for young investigators and researchers from institutions with limited funding. I therefore see the future of open access as finding a sustainable balance between accessibility, affordability, and rigorous scientific review. Utility of these platforms for universities in developing countries is of extreme value to the young scientists and academicians.

6. What would be your main advice for young scholars/students pursuing a career in research within zoonoses?

My first advice would be: learn the disease before learning only the technique. Technologies change very rapidly. A researcher who understands pathogenesis, comparative biology, pathology, and the natural history of disease will always be able to adopt new technologies and ask meaningful questions. Second, do not work within disciplinary silos. Zoonotic diseases are inherently multidisciplinary. Learn from veterinarians, physicians, microbiologists, epidemiologists, wildlife biologists, immunologists, and data scientists. Some of the most interesting discoveries occur where these disciplines intersect. I would also encourage young investigators to remain curious about observations that do not fit their original hypothesis. In pathology and infectious disease research, unexpected findings often lead to the most interesting questions. Finally, maintain scientific integrity and patience. Research inevitably includes negative results, rejected manuscripts, failed experiments, and hypotheses that prove incorrect. These are not wasted efforts if we learn from them. Ask important questions, document what you observe carefully, and let the evidence—not the expectation—drive your conclusions.