Attachment_A_-_PWS.pdf

Attachment A - PWS 140G0224Q0149

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

Histological Processing and Histopathology Services

Background.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) uses high quality histological tissue specimens slides for histopathological diagnostics for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and corals.

The NWHC requires high quality histological tissue specimens slide preparation services.

SCOPE: Services, non-personal, to provide all plant equipment, labor, travel, and materials (unless otherwise provided herein) necessary for processing of National Wildlife Health Center – Madison, WI, (NWHC) histological tissue specimens for histopathological diagnostics for birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and corals.

REQUIREMENTS:

The Contractor shall provide:

I. High quality light microscopy sample processing.

1.0 Routine tissue processing for light microscopy on glass slides with histological staining. The contractor shall have the ability to:

1.0.1 Process a wide variety of tissue types from a wide variety of taxa.

1.0.2 Accept trimmed tissues in cassettes.

1.0.3 Decalcify hard tissues from birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and coral.

1.0.4 Embed tissues in either paraffin or non-EM plastics.

1.0.5 Conduct microtomy of the tissue. Produce routine tissue sections of 5 micrometers that are artifact free. Be able to accommodate microtomy of other tissue thickness for immunohistochemistry.

1.0.6 Conduct slide preparation, defined by placement of tissue section onto archival quality type glass slides (e.g. SuperFrost or SuperFrost Plus) or coated slides (e.g. poly-L-lysine, Probe On Plus Slides, etc.). Special slide requirements will be specified in the delivery order.

1.0.7 Unstained tissue sections attached to glass cut from embedded tissues at a thickness ranging from 0.5 to 10 micrometers.

1.0.8 Provide standard histological staining procedures of tissue sections mounted on glass slides with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain. H&E staining will be even with all cytoplasmic and nuclear structures visible within the limitations of light microscopy and no torn or wrinkled sections.

1.0.9 Provide cover slipping of stained sections with glass coverslips for each specimen.

1.0.10 Provide a unique identification label for each slide which is clearly visible, readable and permanent.

1.1 Special histological stain processing. The contractor shall have the ability to:

1.1.1 Use established protocols for the use of special stains with appropriate adaptations for the particular taxa of organism being analyzed.

1.1.2 Labeled positive control slides shall be provided for each NWHC assigned case number.

1.1.3 Provide a wide variety of traditional and silver stains.

II. The Contractor shall provide:

1.0 Routine tissue processing for light microscopy on glass slides with histological staining.

2.0 Decalcify hard tissues from all taxa.

3.0 Accept trimmed tissues in cassettes for embedding.

4.0 Embed tissue in paraffin wax.

5.0 Conduct microtomy of the tissue (i.e. sectioning embedded blocks of tissue). Produce routine tissue sections of 5 micrometers that are artifact free and be able to accommodate microtomy at other thickness for immunohistochemistry.

6.0 Conduct slide preparation, defined by placement of sections onto specified type of glass slide (e.g.

SuperFrost or SuperFrost Plus) or coated slides (e.g. poly-L lysine, Probe On, Plus Slides, etc.).

Special slide requirement will be specified in each order scheduled under this contract.

7.0 Unstained sections attached to glass slides sectioned form embedded blocks at thickness ranging from 0.5 – 10 micrometers.

8.0 Conduct standard histological staining procedures of tissue sections mounted on glass slides with Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain. Produce H&E sections with even staining, all cytoplasmic and nuclear structures visible within the limitations of light microscopy and no torn, wrinkled or folded sections from paraffin, where indicated.

9.0 Provide cover slipping of stained section with glass coverslip for each specimen.

10.0Provide a unique identification label for each slide which is clearly visible, readable and permanent.

11.0 Special histological stains (See attached special stain request form)

12.0 Use established protocols for the use of special stains with appropriate adaptations for the particular taxa of organism being analyzed.

13.0 Provide Positive control slides for each NWHC case number.

14.0 Service flexibility to work with NWHC pathologists using non-typical stains to solve unique diagnostic problems.

15.0 Be capable of processing a wide variety of tissue types from a wide variety of taxa.

16.0Accept submissions of specimens for processing one to five times per week.

DELIVERABLES:

1. All glass slides produced shall be delivered to the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative

(COTR) or their designee in accordance with the instructions provided in the contract. Slides shall be packaged in such a way as to prevent breakage, insured and shipped by an express carrier (e.g., FedEx, Priority Mail, UPS).

2. Standard sized (3” x 1”) glass histopathology slides with good to excellent staining of tissues using standard operating procedures for paraffin or non-EM plastic embedded tissue as determined by hematoxylin & eosin stained quality control slides shall be delivered. Good to excellent staining is determined by uniformity of staining on section, intensity of stain and distinction of cellular features (i.e., nucleus, cytoplasm). In a given project, the pathologist will review the slides and return poorly stained slides. Those slides that are of poor quality as a result of processing, embedding, staining, or coverslipping as determined by the Government shall be redone at no additional cost.

3. Delivery of unstained or specially stained slides in accordance with specific thicknesses, slide types and treatments outlined in the specific delivery order shall be provided.

4. Provide 24-to-48-hour turnaround time. Provide less than 12-hour turnaround when NWHC has an urgent high priority case.

QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEILLANCE PLAN

The contractor is responsible for quality control. The contractor shall implement its quality control measures before returning slides to the Government.

The Government is responsible for quality assurance. In each project, the Government’s pathologist will review the slides and return substandard and/or poorly stained slides. The returned slides shall be redone by the contractor at no additional cost to the Government.

Historically, the NWHC has called for the following required services under the current incumbent Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA):

Number of Requirements by Fiscal

Year The monthly samples may consist of: 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Acid Fast -Fite's 8 0 17 5 13 Acid Fast -Ziehl-Neelson 13 19 6 5 28 Alcian Blue 0 0 0 0 9 Alcian Blue/PAS 0 0 0 0 16 Bielschowsky Silver Stain 0 0 0 0 0 Brown & Hopps (Gram) 19 90 47 29 230 Calcium-Von Kossa's 2 5 1 0 3 Cassette & PAS 82 143 102 46 263 Cassettes & Routine H&E 1,709 2,274 2,705 2,055 3,070 Congo Red-Bennhold's 0 3 2 2 2 Copper-Rhodanine 0 0 0 0 0 Decal 0 0 0 0 68 Elastic-Verhoeff-Van Gieson 0 0 0 0 0 Embed 0 0 0 0 2 Fontana-Masson 0 1 0 0 3 Giemsa 5 16 4 6 21 Grocott's Methenamine Silver 4 4 26 13 32 H&E Recuts 18 13 25 12 52 Hall's Billirubin 0 1 2 0 0 Hematoxylin-Basic Fuschin-Picric Acid 0 0 0 0 0 Luxol Fast Blue 0 2 2 0 0 Melanin Bleach 0 0 0 0 0 Modified Steiner 0 8 4 1 0 Okajima 0 3 0 0 0

PAS 35 74 44 29 83

Perl's Iron 2 5 5 0 3 Pierce-Vanderkamp (PVK) 2 2 3 2 25 Prep 0 0 0 0 2 PTAH-Mallory's 1 7 4 2 1 Reticulum-Gomori's 0 1 0 0 0 Section 9 1 0 23 0 Toluidine Blue 0 0 0 0 0 TriChrome-Gomori's 0 7 17 1 4 Unstained 0 0 0 9 21