[Use of the direct immunofluorescence method for determination of the TGE viral antigen in swine].

Followed up were the appearance and accumulation of the transmissive gastroenteritis (TGE) virus antigen in infected cells of pig kidney and thyroid. Used were specific conjugates, such introduced by the authors and some imported from Czechoslovakia. The cell cultures were infected with strains of the TGE virus, isolated in Bulgaria or supplied from Czechoslovakia. It was found that the Bulgarian strains were the same as those from Czechoslovakia and the United States. A viral antigen was found as early as the sixth hour following the infection of the cell cultures and it appeared under the form of cytoplasmatic yellow-green fluorescence. By the 12th, and up to the 18th hour the number of the specifically fluorescing cells as well as the intensity of fluorescence itself increased. Highest values in this respect were noticed in the interval between the 36th and 48th hour after the cultures had been infected.