Maintenance of a Specific Pathogen Free Indian-Origin Rhesus Macaque Breeding Program

Added: Mar 23, 2012 9:46 pm Modified: Apr 30, 2012 2:41 pmTrack Changes

4/29/12 Revisions to this notice are indicated by bold print. 

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a requirement for a Contractor or Contractors to provide all facilities, equipment, personnel, and other resources necessary to house, feed, and maintain up to two specific pathogen-free (SPF) breeding colonies of Indian-origin rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) for the purpose of providing the Vaccine Research Center with the maximum number of juvenile macaques per year for the duration of the contract.  The rhesus macaque colonies may be 50 to 800 primates divided into subgroups, and subject to increase or decrease through breeding, infusions of additional animals, or shipping to the VRC.  The Contractor must therefore have the capacity to handle fluctuations in the colony size.

To support the breeding program, the Contractor shall be required to provide a variety of logistical and clinical support services including veterinary care, laboratory and diagnostic pathology; animal quarantine; animal identification and records keeping/analysis; and animal shipping. For the duration of the contract, the Contractor shall maintain an Animal Care and Use Program which includes an Animal Welfare Assurance number provided by the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare; a USDA R (Research) Registration; and an Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International file number or equivalent. Additionally, the Contractor's standards for animal care, biosafety, and occupational health and safety must conform to the most recent versions of the Animal Welfare Act, PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, The Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Biosafety in Microbiology and Biomedical laboratories and Occupational Health and Safety in the Care and Use of Research Animals.

It is the Government's expectation that the primate colonies be housed and maintained geographically separate from each other by at least 200 miles; therefore multiple awards may be issued from this solicitation.  Any award(s), if so issued, will be in the form an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity type contract using firm-fixed price type task orders which will be issued during the period of November 1, 2012 through October 31, 2017.  

This notice or any solicitation associated with this notice does not obligate the government to make an award.

For all interested parties, the solicitation will be available for electronic download on the Federal Business Opportunities website www.fedbizopps.gov on or about May 29, 2012 (revised date). No hard copies of the solicitation will be distributed.

Any requests for information, or questions concerning this requirement must be submitted in writing, by email, to LaDonna Stewart at lstewart@niaid.nih.gov.