IFNAR1 and infection: Experimental infection with SFTSV causes non-fatal mild disease with a moderate decrease in platelets in immunocompetent laboratory animals (Chen et al., 2012; Jin et al., 2012, 2015), whereas immunocompromised interferon α/β receptor-knock-out (IFNAR-/-) mice exhibit 100% lethality after SFTSV infection (Liu et al., 2014).