The present invention concerns a poxviral particle having a targeted infection specificity conferred by an heterologous ligand moiety present at the surface of said poxviral particle and capable of specifically recognizing and binding to an anti-ligand molecule localized at the surface of target cells. The present invention further relates to a vector comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a chimeric polypeptide including such an heterologous ligand moiety and all or part of a natural poxviral surface polypeptide. The present invention additionally concerns compositions comprising said poxviral particle or said vector as well as their use for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. The invention is of very special interest in gene therapy applications, in particular in preventing or treating cancer in mammals.