BAA_CALL_0001_Answers_to_Questions_from_Industry.pdf

Question

Page Section Industry Question Government Response

1 General General In the original BAA 14-003, a two stage submission process involving white papers, and then full proposals was described. Would this approach still be valid for the current call, or do we submit a full proposal directly, without any intermediate Phase 1 white paper?

For this Call, the Government will be utilizing a Single Phase Evaluation (Full Proposals, No White Papers).

This approach is outlined in the Original BAA 14-003, Section 1.6, Call and Response Approach.

2 General General I would like to know if this Call will employ a single phase evaluation or a two phased evaluation. The wording in the Call 0001 document appears to indicate full proposals only, implying a single phase evaluation, but I would like to be sure before preparing a full proposal.

Please see the answer to Question 1.

3 General General BAA 14-003 refers to a “Two Phased Evaluation Process” which includes a White Paper and Full Proposal submissions. Yet, Call 0001 states that “full proposals are due by 3:00 pm EST on the closing date” and makes no reference to a White Paper submittal. Can the Government please confirm that Call 0001 does not follow the Two Phased Evaluation Process and that only Full Proposals following the format detailed in BAA 14-003, Section 5.4 are to be submitted by the 25 August 2014 closing date?

Please see the answer to Question 1

4 General General Are white paper submissions allowed under this particular BAA for the August 22nd deadline?

Please see the Answer to Question 1

5 General General Are Secret Level classified documents allowed as part of the Technical Volume? If so, please advise the specific instructions for uploading the classified materials.

No classified documents will be accepted for this BAA.

6 P.5 Table 2 For several pathogens, sample size is specified as a count of organisms or a mass. In what form would this count/mass be presented to the detector. For example, 100,000 spores of anthrax could be on a swipe cloth, on a cotton swab or suspended in air at a certain concentration (e.g.

10,000 spores per cubic meter). Additional information about the form in which sample would be available is requested.

There are many POE environments; these are, cargo, passenger, mail (i.e., express courier (ECO) e.g., FedEx, UPS etc., and US Postal Mail). As such, pathogenic organisms are presented in different forms depending on the item presented. For example,

a. In cargo and mail environments where agricultural commodities are contained in boxes, envelope, or closed bins and, as such, a detector can be a sniffer that is remotely sampling the biospace within the box or bin; hence, concentration measurements is quantity organism/volume air sampled. In certain cases where meat in imported, a swipe may be useful to detect pathogenic organisms in meat; hence, concentration is quantity organism/mass.

b. In a passenger environment where contaminated agricultural entries are presented in baggage, either a sniffer or swipe detector would work.

c. The simplest detector envisioned that will work at the POE is similar to that of the TSA’s strip, held by a long thong, that is swipe across laptops or anything metallic for detecting traces of explosives. In the case of a biodetection device, the strip will detect pathogenic organisms on surfaces of baggage in passenger environment, packages and pouch in express courier and mail environments, and agricultural commodities in cargo environment. It is envisioned that the strip will be an interchangeable bacteriophage for detecting specific bacterial pathogens.

It is suggested the proponent identify what POE environment they wish to target and recommend focusing on either the mail or passenger environments since these are the two high risk entry pathways of materials laden with prohibited and/or contaminated agricultural materials with the considerations above.

7 P.5 Table 2 For certain threat agents, sample size is specified as microgram per kilogram. Does it mean per kilogram of the commodity being inspected? For example, when inspecting tomatoes for Ricin, would the Customs and Borders staff present a piece of tomato to the detector? Or, would tomato samples be processed in a lab and a small aliquot would be presented to the instrument?

Sample size depends on what detector the proponent proposes. The basic POE requirement is “simplicity of the detector” because the situation at the POE are:

a. Detector that requires complicated sampling and sample preparations, and requires intensive training of the officers to operate the detector are not acceptable.

b. Identification of the pathogenic organism or toxin or select agent is not necessary at the POE. In short, a broad spectrum detector is preferred. At the POE, officers only need to detect, for example, anthrax. It is not necessary to determine if it’s the lethal or non-lethal strain.

c. There is considerable time constraint at the POE to process travelers, cargo, and mail. A fast-response (5-10 min), sensitive detector is thus needed.

d. Portability and non-intrusive detection are vital characteristics of the detector.

e. High cost of the technology will also be prohibitive.

It is suggested the proponent identify what POE environment they wish to target and recommend focusing on either the mail or passenger environments since these are the two high risk entry pathways of materials laden with prohibited and/or contaminated agricultural materials with the considerations above.

8 P.5 Table 2 False alarm rate goal is specified 1 per 100 packages. Could you please provide some examples of typical packages?

See question 5 and:

Depending on POE environment the false alarm rate differs. For example, in a cargo environment, packages can be as small as a 20” x 16” x 4” clamshell that contains berries, cherry tomatoes etc., to boxes of various dimensions and sizes sold by storage and express courier

(ECO) companies, to a large freight container (40 ft long) that carries grains. In the passenger environment

(e.g., airport), baggage comes in the standard hand-carried and checked-in luggage, and hand bags.

It is suggested the proponent identify what POE environment they wish to target and recommend focusing on either the mail or passenger environments since these are the two high risk entry pathways of materials laden with prohibited and/or contaminated agricultural materials with the considerations above.

9 P.4 Sec.4.1.2.2 Concerning the Ports of Entry (POE), could you please indicate how many are under consideration? And how many packages are typically inspected at a POE?

As an example express courier (ECO) hubs such as UPS in

Louisville, KY and FedEx in Memphis, TN bring in approximately between 100,000 to 200,000 packages daily. As another example, the total number of travelers that passed through Atlanta International Airport between

Oct 1, 2013 to date is 4,153,100, with an average hand-carry of 1 and checked-in luggage of 2. However, CBP does not have the luxury to inspect all baggage in the traveler environment or packages in a cargo environment.

Hence, non-intrusive screening detectors provide a fast and effective mechanism to screen imports. CBP have, however, X-ray as the first layer of non-intrusive screening. For biosafety of the officers, if a baggage or cargo has suspicious items in it, immediate physical examination of the materials may be risky. A device that can detect the presence of a bioagent or toxin non-intrusively will be adequate to create a disposition on the imported material.

It is suggested the proponent identify what POE environment they wish to target and recommend focusing on either the mail or passenger environments since these are the two high risk entry pathways of materials laden with prohibited and/or contaminated agricultural materials with the considerations above.