D_Attachment 4 - Marmoset Requisition Tech Eval _Tr.Ch.v.2_clean.pdf

MARMOSET REQUISITION

ATTACHMENT 4: TECHNICAL EVALUATION CRITERIA

FAR clause 52.212-2, Evaluation – Commercial Items applies to this acquisition and the specific evaluation criteria to be included in paragraph (a) of that provision are as follows:

It is anticipated that multiple awards will be made from this solicitation. The Government will award a purchase order(s) resulting from this requirement on the basis of best value, mandatory criteria, technical factors and price considered.

Mandatory Criteria Listed below are mandatory qualification criteria. The qualification criteria establish conditions that must be met prior to award.

ANIMAL WELFARE

This requirement involves the acquisition of animals. The Offeror must demonstrate understanding and compliance with the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and meet following requirements for the proposed animal facilities:

a) Organization shall have an approved Animal Welfare Assurance from the Office of Extramural Research (OER), Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), Office of the Director, NIH, as required by Section I-43-30 of the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

Note: The NIH intends to search OLAW’s Listing of Domestic and Foreign Institutions located at https://olaw.nih.gov/ to verify quoter’s Animal Welfare Assurance. If quoter is Assured but not included in the online Listing, quoter must provide evidence of Assurance with its proposal.

b) Organization shall be accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International.

Note: The NIH intends to search AAALAC’s online Directory of Accredited Organizations (“online Directory) located at www.aaalac.org to verify AAALAC accreditation. If quoter is AAALAC-accredited but not included in the online Directory, offeror must provide evidence of AAALAC accreditation with its proposal.

Technical Factors Technical factors together shall be considered significantly more important than price. The Government reserves the right to make a single award, multiple awards, or no award at all to this CSS. In addition, the CSS may be amended or canceled as necessary to meet Government requirements. Award decisions may include tradeoffs and will be made on the basis of best https://olaw.nih.gov/ http://www.aaalac.org/ value while considering the Government’s project objective. The technical evaluation factors are as follows, in order of importance:

Factor 1: Technical Approach

Ability of the Quoter/Offeror to clearly understand the objectives of the Purchase Description and execute the project.

The Contractor’s proposal shall address each area of the Purchase Description requirements in sufficient detail to demonstrate a clear understanding of the technical proposal for how it meets each of the project requirements. This shall include the ability of the offeror to provide up to twenty-four (24) common marmosets (12 male and 12 female) with known pedigree lines.

For each animal offered, proposals must include complete pedigree information going back at least 3 generations – including at least the dam, sire, 4 grandparents and 8 great-grandparents (see Attachment 5: Generation Pedigree Example for an example of such information). If animals offered are full or half-siblings, that information must be easily discernable from the pedigree information provided.

Proposal must demonstrate ability of all animals to meet or exceed the following salient characteristics:

a. All animals shall be between 18 months and 7 years of age upon arrival at the

NIH.

b. All animals must have parentage and genetic characteristics distinct from those of our current breeding animals, to help us to achieve and maintain a colony with adequate genetic diversity to prevent the accumulation of deleterious recessive mutations. Attachment 2: List of NIMH Current Breeding Animals provides a list of NIMH current breeding animal IDs.

c. All animals must allow NIMH to maintain a coefficient of inbreeding (COI) of about 5% with a COI of 10% or greater being unacceptable. For example, mating of first cousins results in a COI of 6.25%, thus NIMH seeks to breed animals that are more distantly related than first cousins (i.e.: animals to be bred must not share great-grandparents in common). To meet this need, NIMH requires that animals not share a common ancestor with any of the current NIMH breeding animals (see Attachment 2).

d. For all animals, complete pedigree information going back at least 3 generations

– including at least the dam, sire, 4 grandparents and 8 great-grandparents ---must be provided. If animals offered for sale are full or half-siblings, that information must be easily discernable from the pedigree information provided. NIH shall have unlimited rights to use the genetic data delivered under this contract, in accordance with FAR clause 52.227-14 Rights in Data-General (May 2014), which is hereby incorporated by reference.

e. All animals must be available for use as breeding stock with no restrictions on the future experimental or breeding use of these animals (i.e.: NIMH must be able to use these animals to produce future generations of animals for use in research and the animals themselves may not have undergone any previous major survival surgery – as defined by USDA and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals). Further, the offspring of these animals or their genetic material must be able to be used by other Institutes or Centers (ICs) in the NIH Division of Intramural Research or to be shared or exchanged with collaborating institutions both within and outside of NIH in the service of the mission of NIH.

f. Females must not be on pregnant for shipping.

Proposal must demonstrate ability of Contractor to: (1) prepare marmosets for shipment by providing the following veterinary and technician services, as well administrative support; and

(2) provide reports documenting these activities as requested by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR):

a. All animals shall have a health record demonstrating a minimum of three (3) consecutive negative intradermal tuberculin tests, or an industry excepted equivalent test, over the lifetime of the animal or colony health records demonstrating that the source colony is free of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for the past 3 years.

b. All animals must receive an intradermal tuberculin skin test or an industry equivalent test no sooner than ten (10) calendar days prior to shipping and this test must be negative.

c. All animals shall be negative for common pathogenic helminth and protozoal parasites on fecal exam performed within 30 days of delivery.

d. All animals must have no visible evidence of external parasites (e.g., lice, ticks, mites, ringworm, etc.).

e. All animals shall be in good health to include well-fleshed and in good physical condition and be free of clinical signs of disease (i.e., cardiovascular, respiratory, intestinal, internal/external parasitism, no history of chronic diarrhea (lasting longer than 2 weeks), inflammatory bowel disease, wasting syndrome, etc.).

f. All animals shall exhibit no obvious behavioral problems (the animal does not exhibit any stereotypic maladaptive behavior such as self-clasping, self-biting, or consistent circling and there is no physical evidence such as bite wounds or alopecia secondary to excessive self-grooming, that indicates that the animal is exhibiting these behaviors).

g. All animals shall have a veterinary exam indicating each animal is healthy enough to withstand the rigors of travel. If international transport is required, this exam shall be performed within 10 days of shipment.

h. All animals shall be between 180-600 grams body weight, with a body condition score of 2.5-4.5 with 1 begin emaciated and 5 being obese.

i. All animals shall be negative for Salmonella, Shigella on two (2) rectal cultures performed two (2) days in a row within 30 days prior to delivery.

j. Additionally, all animals shall be tested one (1) time via rectal culture and found negative for Klebsiella pneumoniae, hypermucoviscous phenotype, within 30 days prior to delivery. Following rectal swab culture, the lab can conduct a string test on any Klebsiella pneumoniae strains identified (hypermucoviscous would be string test positive).

k. Detailed medical records for all animals shall be provided electronically for review and approval prior to shipment of the animals.

l. All animals shall be handled, prepared for shipment, and shipped in accordance with the Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

m. Contractor shall maintain an Animal Welfare Assurance from the Office of

Extramural Research (OER), Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), Office of the Director, NIH, as required by Section I-43-30 of the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

n. Contractor shall maintain accreditation by the Association for Assessment and

Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International.

Factor 2: Approach to Delivery

Ability of the offeror to meet or exceed delivery requirements.

The Offer shall detail in its technical proposal how it shall meet the delivery requirements.

Preference will be given to vendors able to provide animals: (1) quickly, and (2) which were born and bred within the United States and thus can be delivered rapidly and without the need to complete a CDC import quarantine.

Note: FAR Part 25 and FAR Clause 52.225-1 Buy-American-Supplies (Oct 2022) are applicable to this requirement.

Factor 3: Past Performance

Demonstrated relevant performance of the offeror on similar projects.

The offeror shall provide a list of two (2) past performance references completed during the past five (5) years, similar in size and scope to the requirements outlined in the Purchase Description. Offerors shall include the following information for each contract identified:

• Name of Contracting Organization

• Contract Number

• Contract Type

• Total Contract Value

• Description of Requirement and Specific Responsibilities of the Offeror as they relate to this Purchase Description

• Contract Period of Performance

The evaluation of this criterion may include a review of the past performance ratings of the proposed team (prime and any proposed subcontractors) for any or all projects that are currently loaded in Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) and other sources to which the Government may obtain independently of this submittal. Organizations that do not have an organizational past performance record will receive a “neutral” rating.

Ratings

Technical proposals will be evaluated using a summary adjectival rating in accordance with the following scale and definitions:

Excellent The proposal has exceptional merit and reflects an excellent approach which will clearly result in the superior attainment of all requirements and objectives. This clearly achievable approach includes several advantageous characteristics of substance, and very few disadvantages, which can be expected to result in outstanding performance. The risk of unsuccessful performance is very low as the proposal provides solutions which are unquestionably feasible and practical.

These solutions are further considered very low risk in that they are exceptionally clear and precise, fully supported, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the requirements. Risk Level: Very Low

Good The proposal demonstrates a sound approach which is expected to meet all requirements and objectives. This sound approach includes advantageous characteristics of substance, and few relatively minor disadvantages, which collectively can be expected to result in satisfactory performance. The risk of unsuccessful performance is low as the proposal contains solutions which are considered feasible and practical. These solutions are further considered to reflect low risk in that they are clear and precise, supported, and demonstrate an understanding of the requirements. Risk Level: Low

Acceptable The proposal demonstrates an approach which is capable of meeting all requirements and objectives. The approach includes both advantageous and disadvantageous characteristics of substance, where the advantages are not outweighed by the disadvantages. Collectively, the advantages and disadvantages are likely to result in acceptable performance. The risk of unsuccessful performance is moderate, as the proposal solutions are generally feasible and practical. These solutions may also be considered to reflect moderate risk in that they may be somewhat clear and precise, partially supported, and/or demonstrate a general understanding of the requirements. Risk Level: Neutral

Marginal The proposal demonstrates an approach which may not be capable of meeting all requirements and objectives. The approach has disadvantages of substance and advantages, which if they exist, are outweighed by the disadvantages. Collectively, the advantages and disadvantages present a low or questionable likelihood of resulting in satisfactory performance. The risk of unsuccessful performance is high as the proposal contains solutions which may not be feasible and practical. These solutions may also be considered to reflect high risk in that they lack clarity and precision, are generally unsupported, and/or do not demonstrate a complete understanding of the requirements. Risk Level: High

Unacceptable The proposal demonstrates an approach which, based on a very high risk, will very likely not be capable of meeting all requirements and objectives. This approach has several disadvantages of substance, and advantages which, if they exist, are outweighed by disadvantages.

Collectively, the advantages and disadvantages are unlikely to result in satisfactory performance. The risk of unsuccessful performance is very high as the proposal contains solutions which are not feasible and practical. The solutions may also be considered to reflect very high risk in that they lack any clarity or precision. Risk Level: Very High