Single Source Determination Redacted.pdf

Version 2.0

Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104

SINGLE SOURCE DETERMINATION USING

SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES (SAP)

FOR AN ACTION NOT EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 13.106-1(b)(1))

143051-25-0131

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Commerce, NOAA Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Division (MMTD).

2. Description of supplies or services required to meet agency needs (including the estimated value).

This requirement is necessary to provide marine mammal cause of death diagnostic testing from cases submitted by the NMFS SWFSC Cetacean Health and Life History Program (CHLHP).

Understanding the cause of deaths of marine mammals is required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Furthermore, data from these cases will further our understanding of health, health trends, and diseases of marine mammal populations in the wild. Combined together, these data will provide sound advice to management regarding circumstances or causes of morbidity and mortality in these marine animal populations. The requirement is to provide specialized tissue sample processing (including trimming, embedding, cutting, H&E stains, immunohistochemical stains, etc.), histological evaluations, laboratory diagnostic pathogen testing (PCR, whole genome sequencing, etc.), and expert consultations. This contract is essential to inform the CHLHP and researchers on the health, health trends, and diseases of marine mammal populations, and to provide advice to management regarding circumstances or causes of morbidity and mortality to support NOAA’s mandates for species conservation and recovery under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Period of performance: date of award through 12 months after date of award, with two additional option periods.

Contract Type: Firm Fixed Price

0. Identification of the single source or the brand name to be solicited.

University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine Zoological Pathology Program 3300 Golf Rd.

Brookfield IL 60513

UEI: Y8CWNJRCNN91

0. Supporting rationale. Only one source or brand name is reasonably available as detailed below:

Other - Only one source is capable: The University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine, Zoological Pathology Program works through a variety of projects and initiatives to address complex health problems in zoological collections and wildlife. The program has earned an international reputation for excellence in diagnostic service, education of residents and veterinary students, contribution to worldwide conservation efforts, and original scholarship. The Zoological Pathology Program contributes to global conservation efforts through diagnosis and research into wildlife diseases, which not only benefit species conservation programs but also enhance the health of domestic animals, humans, and the environment. The Zoological Pathology Program has faculty and staff members who are board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Pathology (ACVP diplomats) and/or hold PhDs in veterinary medicine, wildlife disease, or other related disciplines.

The Zoological Pathology Program has extensive experience in marine mammal diagnostic pathology and diagnostic pathogen testing.

The stranding response team within the CHLHP of the SWFSC responds to dead stranded marine mammals along the San Diego coastline. A recent domoic acid (DA) event caused a mass mortality of marine mammals from San Diego to Ventura, CA. To accurately assess the event's impact, multiple partner organizations are collaborating to analyze trends, understand the physiological effects on these animals, and identify any potential public health risks. To ensure the validity and comparability of the data, all histology cases must be examined by a single laboratory. The University of Illinois Zoological Pathology Program has been chosen as the central laboratory. This approach ensures that all samples are processed and interpreted using the same protocols, equipment, and expertise, eliminating variability that would arise from using multiple labs. This consistency is crucial for drawing statistically sound conclusions about the event's overall scope and impact. Without using the same laboratory, 24 dolphin cases at the SWFSC will not be comparable to the tens of cases that were collected by other organizations in the area, thereby making these samples useless for finding spatial and temporal changes in the effects of the DA event.

The same laboratory is contracted by the NMFS Office of Protected Resources (OPR), which works throughout the United States and abroad to detect, investigate, and respond to marine animal health and emergency response issues. Specifically, the diagnostic capabilities of the Zoological Pathology Program are used for health and disease investigations of stranded and live captured wild marine mammals, including unusual mortality events (UMEs). The comparable analysis to determine the cause of deaths nationally is essential for understanding the morbidity and mortality of marine mammals. As the SWFSC operates within the NMFS, compatibility of data within the agency is critical.

The Zoological Pathology Program is uniquely qualified to assist with the marine mammal diagnostic pathology and diagnostic testing for pathogens, particularly morbillivirus and other viral pathogens, and toxins, such as domoic acid. The program also excels at data interpretation and analysis. They have significant expertise and experience in viral pathogen testing in wildlife nationally and globally, and have provided rapid turnaround diagnostic services for marine mammal pathogens and toxins routinely.

The laboratory has the expertise and experience in handling samples and swabs for morbillivirus and other viral pathogens and toxins from marine mammals and has been participating in various UME investigations for over 10 years. The Zoological Pathology Program has experience with the sample tracking, chain of custody, and paperwork associated with the legal aspects of these services and understands the importance of these processes for law enforcement investigations and Natural Resource Damage Assessments. From both a scientific and legal perspective, for future cases, it is critical that an experienced laboratory be used when testing marine mammal samples. The laboratory also has the expertise to summarize and analyze patterns of disease and evaluate risk factors for exposure to disease in marine mammals, and thus often participates as a member of the multidisciplinary teams that investigate UMEs as well as other diseases that affect marine mammal or other wildlife populations. Finally, this laboratory has recently worked as diagnostic support for four ongoing large whale UMEs and has provided rapid turnaround of PCR results to managers and responders.

If this contract cannot be awarded to the Zoological Pathology Program, several investigations that are conducted by the CHLHP and the OPR on the health, health trends, and diseases of marine mammal populations would be impacted. This lack of diagnostic data would negatively impact the ability of the NMFS to provide advice to management regarding causes of morbidity and mortality in marine mammal populations and support NOAA’s mandates for species conservation and recovery under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Compatibility to existing systems or equipment: The CHLHP and the OPR, along with other NMFS line offices (e.g., Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center), have been using the Zoological Pathology Program at the University of Illinois. The CHLHP at the SWFSC prefers the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Illinois for this contract due to the ongoing collaboration (over 8 years) and the importance of consistency in histopathological examination of marine mammal tissues. The Zoological Pathology Program has specific expertise in marine mammal pathology and disease. General wildlife pathologists have been used in the past, which resulted in poor diagnoses due to their lack of knowledge of this taxon. The ability to compare diagnoses among samples over time would be severely hampered if different labs and pathologists were used.

5. Market Research.

Market research was conducted to identify vendors capable of processing the samples.

Although we were able to identify other laboratories that could provide similar services, if we suddenly had to switch to a different vendor, our data quality would be jeopardized.

The consistency of histopathological examinations over time and among our collaborators rely on this vendor to perform the reports. Furthermore, the other laboratories do not possess the equivalent experience of the preferred vendor in analyzing marine mammal samples, which are distinct from terrestrial and avian species. The preferred vendor has specific expertise in marine mammal pathology and disease. General wildlife pathologists have been used in the past, which resulted in poor diagnoses due to their lack of knowledge of this taxon. The ability to compare diagnoses among samples over time would be severely hampered if a different lab is used. A sole source award is justified based on this finding. Please see market research documentation for further details.