Interestingly, alphaviruses belonging to the western equine encephalitis complex, including SINV, were recently shown to recognize avian but not mammalian orthologs of MXRA8, the well-established CHIKV receptor11, with a binding mode that is remarkably distinct from how CHIKV binds mammalian MXRA842. Here, MXRA8 is linked to western equine encephalitis.