One week prior to infection, five to six week-old mice were transferred in BSL3 isolators to allow acclimatization. After this period, they were inoculated intraperitoneally (i.p.), intradermally (i.d.) or intranasally with 10 4 PFU ZH548, rZHDNSs-hRLuc or rZHDNSs-GFP RVFV in DMEM supplemented with 2% FCS, and antibiotics. For i.p. infection, mice were inoculated with 100 mL of viral suspension. For i.d. and intranasal infections, mice were first anesthetized with ketamine (150 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg) administered i.p., then inoculated with either 15 to 30 mL or 15 mL of viral suspension into the ear (i.d.) or intranasally, respectively. Mortality was recorded at least twice a day from day 1 to 4 post-infection and once a day after day 5 postinfection until the end of the observation period. Animals were observed for a maximum of 14 days.