IFNA1 and infection: Infection with both studied TBEV strains in the low dose was not accompanied by IFN type I accumulation in mouse blood; however, infection of DCs with the low dose of the EK-328 strain led to production of IFN-α within 5 h p.i. This could indicate that subpopulations of DCs undergo activation differently in vivo and in vitro or that the probability of DC-virus contact dramatically decreased at the low infectious dose.