ANIMAL TEETH ANALYSIS

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Wildlife Services (WS), intends to issue a sole source Blanket Purchase Agreement to Matson's Laboratory, Milltown, MT, for lab analysis on teeth collected from animals during the post-Oral Rabies Vaccine trapping and monitoring for the presence of tetracycline biomarker. The proposed BPA action is for services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302. The requirement: Test teeth are collected from wildlife by USDA, APHIS, Wildlife Services. This Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) will be available for use by all WS offices, but will primarily be used by the WS National Rabies Management Program (NRMP). The NRMP distributes oral rabies vaccine (ORV) baits out of aircraft to control rabies in raccoons, foxes and coyotes in 15 states throughout the US. In addition to ORV, the NRMP enhances rabies surveillance by collecting wildlife carcasses to test for rabies in 23 states. Teeth are collected from both live animals during post-ORV trapping/monitoring and dead animals during enhanced surveillance. Teeth are used to provide animal age and biomarker uptake data; our ORV baits have a chemical biomarker (tetracycline) that stains the tooth and indicates whether an animal ate the bait. These results allow the NRMP to make management decisions based on population structure and dynamics (age analysis) and ORV bait uptake (biomarker analysis). The contractor will analyze: a. Up to 8,000 teeth from wild animals (primarily raccoon, skunk, fox, coyote, bobcat, and/or fisher) may be aged using cementum annuli and analyzed for the presence of tetracycline biomarker. b. Tooth types may include first premolars, second premolars, molars, canines, and/or incisors. c. Samples shall be submitted to the testing Lab from any WS office in any of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands. d. Samples from WS should be sent to the lab overnight via UPS or FedEx. e. Shipments to the lab from WS may occur year-round, but with the majority of shipments occurring between November and April. f. Teeth shall be processed within 12 months of receiving samples from WS, provided they were scheduled in advance. (May be 12-18 months without advanced scheduling.) g. The final outputs shall be MS Excel files listing all of our submitted samples by ID number and showing their age, accuracy, and tetracycline results. h. WS does not need to receive quarterly reports. i. The slide preparations shall be shipped back to the originating WS office, unless disposal arrangements have been made between the testing lab and WS. The analysis must be done by an accredited laboratory with proven experience, accuracy and precision. The lab must be able to handle the anticipated number of teeth, up to 8,000, for testing in a timely manner. Interested persons may identify their interest in having a BPA issued by submitting their credentials, references from three sources for providing the same or similar services, and the credentials of the lab personnel who providing the service, by email to [email protected] This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. A determination by the Government not to compete with this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.