The possibility of using immunocompetent ICR mice and immunodeficient SCID mice as model animals for smallpox to assess antiviral drug efficacy was investigated. Clinical signs of the disease did not appear following intranasal (i.n.) challenge of mice with strain Ind-3a of variola virus (VARV), even when using the highest possible dose of the virus (5.2 log10 p.f.u.). The 50 % infective doses (ID50) of VARV, estimated by the virus presence or absence in the lungs 3 and 4 days post-infection, were 2.7 ± 0.4 log10 p.f.u. for ICR mice and 3.5 ± 0.7 log10 p.f.u. for SCID mice. After i.n. challenge of ICR and SCID mice with VARV 30 and 50 ID50, respectively, steady reproduction of the virus occurred only in the respiratory tract (lungs and nose). Pathological inflammatory destructive changes were revealed in the respiratory tract and the primary target cells for VARV (macrophages and epithelial cells) in mice, similar to those in humans and cynomolgus macaques. The use of mice to assess antiviral efficacies of NIOCH-14 and ST-246 demonstrated the compliance of results with those described in scientific literature, which opens up the prospect of their use as an animal model for smallpox to develop anti-smallpox drugs intended for humans.