REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Cattle Brucellosis Screening Serum Tests Veterinary Services (VS) Description The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary Services (VS), conducts ongoing bovine slaughter surveillance for Brucella abortus (bovines) exposure or infection in U.S. cattle and bison. This surveillance program involves screening testing of blood collected from adult cattle and bison slaughtered at selected, large slaughter establishments within the U.S. The targeted population for this surveillance includes adult (cull) cattle and bison slaughtered in the U.S. Request For Information (RFI) Only. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute as a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This request for information does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, the Government is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. The RFI responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities (formally FedBizOpps.gov) website: https://www.beta.SAM.gov. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement. Proprietary information, if any, should be kept to minimum and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. Background The VS Brucellosis and Pseudorabies laboratory is located in Frankfurt, Kentucky. This lab conducts large scale cattle brucellosis screening serum tests mainly from slaughter plants. The primary purpose of this testing is for “proof of freedom”. VS leadership has requested information to gauge how much interest exists in contracting with a lab to perform this testing and to get an estimate of how much such a contract would cost the agency. This is for information gathering purposes only and this is not a solicitation of a contract or proposal. VS Cattle Commodity Staff provided the following brief outline of the cattle sample annual expectations as well as the attached Statement of Work: Test up to 200,000 cattle serum (submitted as whole blood in red top tubes or plastic tubes with screw-on tops) samples per year with the BAPA or FPA test. (Approximately 100 confirmatory FPA tests are performed per year based on KY RDL work.) Process samples in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures for Submission and Testing of Brucellosis Serological Specimens (APHIS/Veterinary Services Approved Brucellosis Laboratories – current version June 2014). This includes following the guidance for Receiving, Grouping, Processing, Assessment, Centrifugation of the Specimen, Screening Examination with FPA, or BAPA, Secondary Examination with Fluorescent Polarization Assay (FPA), Retrieval of ID and Recording ID for Non-negative Specimens on a New VS Form 4-54 or VS Form 4-33, and following required Records Retention protocols. Many of these submissions arrive in very poor quality, leaky tubes, environmental contamination, etc. If a specimen yields a non-negative FPA test interpretation, the specimen shall be forwarded to NVSL for confirmation of screening and secondary test interpretations. Provide summary of testing results on a monthly basis. 3.0 Requested Information The primary objective of issuing the RFI is to seek information from vendors with the capability of providing a cost effective solution to contracting out the testing performed at the VS Brucellosis and Pseudorabies laboratory. The RFI should address the following: Would your lab potentially be interested in contracting to perform this Brucellosis and PRV testing? What do you estimate you would charge for the testing, handling of poor quality samples, disposal of untested samples, data entry, and administrative costs on a per test performed basis? BAPA or FPA test (200,000 per year): How long would it take your lab to prepare to perform this volume of testing? Responses Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI by email only. The RFI should be delivered by email only NLT July 18, 2020, 1600 EST. All written responses must be received within 30 days of issuance of this RFI. Submissions should: (1) use Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF); (2) be sent to the point of contact listed in this notice; (3) be minimum 11 font on 8.5 X 11 paper; (4) be complete, sufficiently detailed, and organized in a manner that tracks to the information requested in this RFI; (5) include a single company point of contact with name, title, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address(es); and (6) not exceed 10 single sided pages in total (not including cover page and cover letter). Material that is advertisement only in nature is not desired. Any questions or inquiries must be e-mailed to the Contracting Office, to the attention of the point of contact listed in this notice. Company Information. The RFI whitepaper should provide the following information: Company Information. Name, mailing address, overnight delivery address (if different from mailing address), phone number, fax number, and e-mail of designated point of contact. Any laboratory conducing official testing for bovine slaughter surveillance shall be APHIS-approved to conduct such testing per 9 CFR 71.22. 5.0 Questions Questions regarding this RFI should be submitted in writing by e-mail only to the Contracting Representative, Latisha Hollman,
[email protected]. 6.0 Summary This RFI is only intended for the Government to identify sources that can accomplish the testing performed at the VS Brucellosis and Pseudorabies laboratory. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding to the Government. The Government representatives may contact the contractor to get further clarification of potential capability, especially any development and certification risks.