The study was designed to collect five individual worms per fox intestine and 20 foxes per geographical area investigated (for geographical areas, refer to Table 1 ). The final panel obtained was composed of 571 worms originating from 123 autopsied red foxes, allocated into nine subregions based on topographical and ecological criteria (Figure 1 ). Collections were performed by nine research units dealing with diagnostic and epidemiological aspects of E. multilocularis in Europe (see author list and respective information). Collection and worm isolation procedures were carried out identically in all laboratories according to a standard protocol [16] using the intestinal scraping technique (IST) as described by Deplazes and Eckert [17] (link). Worm specimens were individually preserved in 70% (v/v) ethanol until use. Thus, the subregion of Ardennes demarcated with polygons clustered 79 individual adult stage E. multilocularis samples (derived from 16 foxes), Switzerland 84 (19 foxes), Jura Swabe 39 (8 foxes), Bavaria 48 (10 foxes), west Czech Republic 61 (13 foxes), north Austria 103 (23 foxes), central Slovakia 30 (7 foxes), Tatra Mountains (east Slovakia and south Poland) 81 (17 foxes), and north Poland 46 (10 foxes). Among these subregions, Switzerland, Jura Swabe, Bavaria, west Czech Republic, and north Austria were gathered into a set of the historical endemic area, whereas the others were considered as western (Ardennes) and eastern (central Slovakia, Tatra Mountains, and north Poland) European subregions. Parasites were collected between 2001 and 2005.
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