Scope Background for Sources Sought - Animal Husbandry - 10-14-2022.pdf

BACKGROUND

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is one of 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIEHS is in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. NIEHS’s broad focus on the environmental causes of disease makes the institute a unique part of the NIH.

NIEHS is home to the National Toxicology Program (NTP), the nation’s premier program for testing and evaluation of agents in our environment. The focus of the NIEHS research is to discover how the environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives. At the NIEHS, we incorporate sustainability into our mission to ensure that we have, and will continue to have, the resources needed to protect human and environmental health indefinitely. The NIH and NIEHS recognize that sustainable operations align with our mission to enhance our current understanding of the relationship between human and environmental health.

The Animal Husbandry Support Contract for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences provides care, maintenance, and technical services for laboratory animals, seven (7) days per week, including weekends and holidays, for 72,447 square feet of laboratory animal facility space (which includes ancillary support areas outside of the main facility, including a separate facility located approximately one mile from the main facility). This contract supports the work of approximately 40 Principal Investigators, with over 137 Animal Study Proposals, and a daily inventory of 44,000 animals, including over 500 transgenic strains. The animals must be maintained under carefully controlled conditions to allow the accurate interpretation of research results. The contractor is responsible for the care and maintenance of the animals, the sanitation of equipment, and the general maintenance of the facilities in such a manner as to maintain the highest level of Accreditation from the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, International (AAALAC, Intl.) The services provided by this contract are considered mission critical.

SCOPE OF WORK

The objective of this contract is to provide uniform, consistent, high- quality animal husbandry, and technical support services by utilizing experienced and well-trained staff, preferably certified by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). The Contractor shall furnish the necessary personnel, materials, and services (except as otherwise specified) for the efficient performance of duties commonly termed "animal care services" in support of the Performance Work Statement for the operation of the NIEHS Animal Facility. The contract staff will function as an integral part of the Government’s research program by providing basic animal husbandry, technical and support services to the NIEHS institute. The Contractor shall provide a results-oriented approach with an emphasis on quality, consistency in the level of effort, professionalism, continuous improvement, and excellence.

Principle functions include, but are not limited to:

The contractor will be responsible for establishing pedigreed rodent breeding colonies, performing complicated surgical techniques, supporting complex behavioral research and equipment, and diagnostic evaluation of laboratory animals in support of research programs and objectives. The contract will be responsible for the breeding, perpetuation, and potential expansion of the various strains of research colony rodents, which includes over 500 transgenic knock-out/knock-in and mutant mouse lines. The contractor will also evaluate the reproductive efficiency of all in-house rodent breeding colonies including transgenic colonies and identify reproductive problems and make recommendations for improvement. The contractor will prepare working protocols for each breeding colony, including the determination of strain viability, production rate, data collection and data assimilation, and unique phenotypic characteristics. This must be accomplished by establishing and maintaining excellent working relationships with the principal investigators. The contractor is also charged with the production, husbandry, and sample collection of an in-house sentinel program; to include maintenance of a specific pathogen-free gnotobiotic colony of rodents.

The Contractor will also be responsible for all aspects of husbandry and animal care which includes feeding and watering animals; animal health surveillance;

monitoring animal micro and macro environment conditions; monitoring and maintaining Individually Ventilated Cage (IVC) systems, sanitation and cleaning of cages and rooms, ensuring that biosecurity and biocontainment are maintained across areas with varying animal health/pathogen status. The contract is also responsible for any aquatic research animals that may be introduced to the program during this contract performance period. This includes but is not limited to the care and husbandry of various species and strains of aquatic animals, water testing and monitoring to maintain acceptable variables, health assessments, and medical treatments.

The contractor will perform technical procedures (e.g. injections, gavage) in direct support of researcher experiments and will perform researcher training on animal handling. The contractor will also identify animals by performing ear punches; tail, toe, or foot pad tattoos; or microchip implantations as directed. The Contractor will collect tissue samples for rodent genotyping, perform anesthesia for procedures, and perform humane euthanasia as dictated by the regulatory committees overseeing animal research.

The Contractor will administer routine treatments to animals when prescribed by veterinary staff. The Contractor will order, receive, inspect, and inventory deliveries of feed, bedding, equipment, and supplies, and maintain animal room equipment and inventory. The Contractor will receive, inspect, deliver shipments of in-house animals/caging/tissue samples within a 25-mile radius of NIEHS, and prepare animals for both intra and intercontinental shipments. The Contractor will operate and monitor the performance of autoclaves, cage washers, rack washers, bedding dispensers, bottle washers, and bottle fillers, vacuum cleaners, and floor scrubbers. The Contractor will provide housekeeping to the entire animal facility and support areas. The Contractor will provide around-the-clock coverage for routine scheduled maintenance outages as well as coverage for unforeseen outages as needed (to be billed outside of fixed pricing with the approval of the COR). The Contractor will perform the data management of animal inventory, cost accounting, and animal study proposals using Sirius animal facility management software.

The Contractor will perform necropsies and record findings on Animal Health Reports and perform sample collection (urine, feces, tissues, whole blood and/or blood products, parasites, microbiological cultures) fixation and/or freezing of samples.

The Contractor will be responsible for training all new employees as well as providing a minimum of 20 hours per contract year of on-going training for the entire staff.

The Contractor will ensure that all activities are performed in compliance with all CMB/NIEHS safety and sanitation policies relating to COVID 19 (or any other human health circumstances), to include, but not limited to maintaining social distancing, wearing of masks (or other NIEHS-mandated PPE), and heightened sanitation procedures. To comply with social distancing requirements, the Contractor may have to alter or stagger onsite staffing levels or employee breaks or operate outside of normal working hours.