About the Authors

Pawel Stefanoff

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland

Magdalena Rosinska

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland

Steven Samuels

Affiliation State University of New York at Albany, School of Public Health, Rensselaer, New York, United States of America

Dennis J. White

Affiliations State University of New York at Albany, School of Public Health, Rensselaer, New York, United States of America, New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York, United States of America

Dale L. Morse

Affiliation National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Sarah E. Randolph

sarah.randolph@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Affiliation Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

PS has received travel grants from Baxter and unrestricted research grants from GlaxoSmithKline, Baxter and Novartis. SER is a member of the International Scientific Working Group on TBE, funded by Baxter. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and material. The other authors have declared no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Analyzed the data: PS MR SS. Conceived and designed the study: PS MR SS DJW DLM. Prepared study materials and coordinated data collection: PS MR. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: PS MR SER. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: SS DJW DLM. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: PS MR SS DJW DLM SER.