About the Authors

Sabrina Hepner

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

sabrina.hepner@lgl.bayern.de

ESGBOR members.

Affiliations German National Reference Centre for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleissheim, Germany

Robert E. Rollins

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Institute of Avian Research “Vogelwarte Helgoland”, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

Evangelos Mourkas

Roles Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Zoonosis Science Centre, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Konstantin Kuleshov

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Moscow, Russia

Sherwood Casjens

Roles Data curation, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences and Division of Microbiology and Immunology, Pathology Department, University of Utah School, Utah, United States of America

Weigang Qiu

Roles Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, United States of America

Alexandra Dangel

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleissheim, Germany

Dunia Velázquez

Roles Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation German National Reference Centre for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany

Sergey Y. Kovalev

Roles Resources, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Institute of Natural Science and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Andreas Wieser

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology, Max von Pettenkofer Institute, Faculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany, Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany, German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner site Munich, Munich, Germany, Imunology, Infectious Disease and Pandemic Research (IIP), Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology (ITMP), Munich, Germany

Johannes Hübner

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

Andreas Sing

Roles Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

ESGBOR members.

Affiliations German National Reference Centre for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleissheim, Germany

Volker Fingerle

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

ESGBOR members.

Affiliations German National Reference Centre for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleissheim, Germany

Gabriele Margos

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

ESGBOR members.

Affiliations German National Reference Centre for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleissheim, Germany

Competing Interests

I have read the journal’s policy and the author (Volker Fingerle) of this manuscript has the following competing interests: Volker Fingerle discloses research support: RKI/BMG, ESCMID, ECDC, StMGP/StMUG, INSTAND; lecturing activities (fees, travel expenses): DIAMEDIS, Diasorin, Mikrogen, Seramun, Siemens, HLR, Pfizer; Consultancy, round robin tests (no fees): QCMD, Pfizer, INSTAND, ECDC. The remaining authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.