About the Authors

Esra Yilmaz

Affiliation Institute for Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Moritz Fritzenwanker

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany; German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner site Giessen-Marburg-Langen, Campus Giessen, Giessen, Germany

Nikola Pantchev

Affiliation IDEXX Laboratories, Ludwigsburg, Germany

Mathias Lendner

Affiliation Institut für Parasitologie, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

Sirichit Wongkamchai

Affiliation Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

Domenico Otranto

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy

Inge Kroidl

Affiliation Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Medical Centre of the University of Munich (LMU); German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner site Munich, Germany

Martin Dennebaum

Affiliation Section Clinical Tropical Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany

Thanh Hoa Le

Affiliation Immunology Department, Institute of Biotechnology, Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Tran Anh Le

Affiliation Department of Parasitology, Viet Nam Veterinary Medical University, Ha Noi, Viet Nam

Sabrina Ramünke

Affiliation Institute for Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Roland Schaper

Affiliation Bayer Animal Health GmbH, Monheim, Germany

Georg von Samson-Himmelstjerna

Affiliation Institute for Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Sven Poppert

Affiliation University Medical Center, Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

Jürgen Krücken

juergen.kruecken@fu-berlin.de

Affiliation Institute for Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Competing Interests

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: RS is an employee of Bayer Animal Health, a company that produces and sells anti-parasitic drugs. NP is an employee of IDEXX Laboraroties, a company that provides veterinary diagnostic Services including diagnosis of Dirofilaria spp. With the exception of RS and NP, Bayer Animal Health and IDEXX Laboratories were not involved in study design, data collection, data analysis or preparation of the manuscript. The decision to publish the manuscript was jointly taken. This does not alter our adherence to all PLOS policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: JK SP GvSH RS MF EY. Data curation: EY JK MF. Formal analysis: JK MF EY. Funding acquisition: GvSH SP RS. Investigation: EY MF ML NP SW SR DO. Methodology: EY MF JK. Project administration: GvSH SP JK. Resources: NP DO SW IK MD THL TAL RS. Software: MF. Supervision: JK SP GvSH. Validation: EY MF SP SR JK. Visualization: JK EY. Writing – original draft: JK EY SP MF GvSH NP DO. Writing – review & editing: JK EY MF SP.