[Demonstration of a transmissible gastroenteritis virus by contrast immunofluorescence]

Tested were a number of procedures to employ the immunofluorescence method for diagnosing transmissive gastroenteritis in pigs--impression preparations, frozen cross-sectioned material, and infected cell cultures of the established cell line SPEV. It was found that immunofluorescence microscopy was a dependable method for the express diagnosis of transmissive gastroenteritis. It could be employed in its three variants. The use of impression preparations, however, did not prove as dependable as the remaining ways of applying the method, and this drawback had to be compensated for with the study of a greater number of impression preparations taken from more pigs that had contracted the disease. It was also established that most promising and effective was to apply the method with the use of cell cultures infected with suspensions of organs. Cell cultures of the established SPEV cell line infected with material that contained the virus could produce dependable positive results in immunofluorescence investigations at the 24th hour following inoculation. This method could be employed for the express diagnosis of transmissive gastroenteritis.