TGEV Antigen Test – Notes from the Field

You walk into the farrowing barn. Piglets are scouring. Badly. Water everywhere. Some vomiting too.

You know what that looks like. But you also know it could be any of five different things.

TGEV. Coronavirus. Hits the gut lining. Destroys villi. Piglets can't absorb fluid. They dehydrate. They die.

Not the virus that kills them, actually. Dehydration does.

Age matters. A lot. Three-day-old piglet = no immunity. Dead in hours. Finishing pig = maybe a little diarrhea. Maybe nothing.

Signs you see:

Vomiting out of nowhere.
Watery diarrhea. Yellowish sometimes.
Pigs go off feed.
They look miserable. Ears down. Huddled up.
Skin tents when you pinch it.
Piglets lose weight day by day.
Mortality goes up. Way up.

If you see this across multiple litters at once, start thinking TGEV. But also start thinking PEDV. PDCoV. Rotavirus.

Here's the thing. All those viruses look exactly the same in a pig. You cannot tell them apart by looking. I don't care how experienced you are. You can't.

That's why you test.

Rapid antigen test. Swab the pig. Run the kit. 10 minutes. Result.

Positive? Now you know.

Negative? Maybe. Or maybe you sampled too late. Maybe viral load dropped. Maybe it's something else.

Do not trust a negative result too much. Trust it even less if you sampled after day two of the outbreak.

When do I test? These situations:

Newborn piglets scouring. They go downhill fast. Test early.

Diarrhea moving through pens quickly. Monday one pen. Tuesday three pens. Wednesday half the barn. That's not normal.

Diarrhea that keeps coming back. You treat. It improves. Then it returns. You treat again. Break the cycle. Test.

After pig movements. Trucks come in. People visit. Pigs get moved around. Then diarrhea shows up. Test and find out.

Positive = useful information. Negative = not always useful. Need to look at the whole picture. Clinical signs. Timing. Sample quality. Other test results.

Other things cause diarrhea too. Long list:

TGEV.
PEDV.
PDCoV.
Rotavirus.
E. coli.
Clostridium.
Coccidia.

Some hit together. Mixed infections happen all the time.

So you test for TGEV. But you also test for other things. You culture bacteria. You piece it together.

Sampling matters. A lot.

Sample early. First 24 hours best. After that, virus starts dropping.

Read the kit instructions. Some want feces. Some want swabs. Different kits, different requirements.

Clean gear. One pig, one swab. Don't mix.

Store properly. Heat messes up the sample. Don't freeze if you're testing soon. Refrigerate.

One pig does not tell you everything.

TGEV moves through age groups differently. Might be in the grower pens without showing much. Meanwhile piglets in the farrowing house are dying.

Sample different pens. Sample different ages. Sample over time.

That's how you know what's really going on.

Bottom line.

TGEV is bad news for piglets. It spreads fast. It kills fast. And it looks like everything else.

Clinical signs are not enough. You need data.

Rapid testing gives you that data. Right there on the farm. No waiting for a lab.

Used right – good samples, proper timing, common sense – it helps you make better calls.

Better calls = fewer losses.