Notice of Intent to Issue a Single Source Award to eENZYME. LLC.

Under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), Region 3, Division of Construction and Acquisition at Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, intends to procure on a sole-source basis with eENZYME, LLC, of Montgomery Village, Maryland, a prefabricated micro-lab with three clean rooms. This micro-lab is necessary to increase the La Crosse Fish Health Center's capacity to perform polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays on a weekly basis. The PCR is an assay tool fish health biologists are using to monitor the geographical distribution of Epizootic Epitheliotropic Disease virus (EEDV) in strains of wild lake trout in the Great Lakes. The PCR, EEDV surveillance study is a cooperative effort between the Service's Region 3 and 5 fish health laboratories, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of California - Davis Department of Microbiology. With the purchase of this micro-lab the study will also have the capacity to monitor non-lake trout species of fish in the Great Lakes which coexist with native lake trout to see if they are a reservoir of infection for the virus. There are many micro-lab designs available on the market, but none like the one from eENZYME which consists of three separate work areas, each with its own segregated air supply and buffered entry area. More importantly, this prefabricated unit will fit within the space provided at the fish health lab. As more DNA analysis is used to detect fish pathogens in hatchery and free-ranging fish species PCR assay work will continue to grow and the need for a micro-lab like the one from eENZYME will become more critical.