The role played by host T cells in VACV localized infection seems to be the control of viral replication at the initial site, once Rag1−/− had higher titers and delayed healing in the tail when compared to WT mice (Figure 2C and 3B) and the passive transfer of WT cells to Rag1−/− mice decrease viral replication at this site and led to complete healing, similar to animals reconstituted with whole splenocytes (Figure 7C and S2). Here, RAG1 is linked to infection.