Animal Husbandry Support Services

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is seeking qualified small businesses (SB's), including 8(a)s, service-disabled veterans, HUBZONEs, women-owned small businesses, and small disadvantaged businesses, for a requirement for Animal Husbandry Support Services to be performed at our facility located in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) in Durham, NC. The performance of service for this requirement will be conducted in Government owned or leased facilities within the designated contract service area(s). The NIEHS will provide animal holding and procedures, space, cage wash facilities, office and laboratory space, restroom, shower, locker areas, storage and other support space to conduct the contract. The Animal Husbandry Support Service Contractor shall be capable of providing care and maintenance for laboratory animals, seven (7) days per week including weekends and holidays for a 57,000 square feet laboratory animal facility with a daily inventory of 30,000 animals. This includes feeding and watering animals; observing health and condition of animals; sanitizing and cleaning of cages and rooms; animal health surveillance; identifying animals by ear punch, tattoo or microchip implantation as directed, administering routine treatments to animals when prescribed by Veterinary Staff, and maintaining animal room equipment and supplies. The Contractor shall also be capable of the following: ordering, receiving, inspecting and inventorying deliveries of feed, bedding, equipment and supplies; receiving, inspecting, and within a 25 mile radius of NIEHS delivering shipments of incoming and in-house animals; operating and monitoring performance of autoclaves, cage washers, rack washers, bottle washers and bottle fillers, clothes washers and dryers, vacuum cleaners and floor scrubbers; providing housekeeping to entire animal facility and support areas; establishing pedigreed rodent breeding colonies; performing complicated surgical techniques, and diagnostic evaluation of laboratory animals in support of research programs and objectives. The Contractor will be responsible for the breeding, perpetuation, and possible expansion of the various strains of research colony rodents which includes over 300 transgenic knock-out / knock-in and mutant mouse lines; therefore, the Contractor must be capable of evaluating the reproductive efficiency of all in-house rodent breeding colonies including transgenic colonies; identifying reproductive problems and make recommendations for improvement; preparing working protocols for each breeding colony. Also, the Contractor must be capable of assisting with the preparation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) regarding animal husbandry, animal care, and rodent breeding; performing the data management of animal inventory, cost accounting, and the animal study proposals using the eSirius animal facility management software; performing necropsies, including sentinel animals, recording all lesions observed on the Animal Health Report; and performing sample collection (urine, feces, tissues, whole blood and/or blood products, parasites, microbiological cultures) fixation and/or freezing of samples. Formal written SOPs will be provided by the Government for all duties. The contractor must demonstrate their capability to perform duties to conform to the most recent version of the NCR Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, as well as the Public Health Service (PHS) Policy for Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the Animal Welfare Act PL 89-544 and amendments, National Institute of Health (NIH) Manual Policy 3040-2, and the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International Standards. The purpose of this notice is to advertise this requirement to seek all qualified small business firms under the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) 541990 capable of providing Animal Husbandry Support Services onsite at the NIEHS. The anticipated period of performance for this requirement is fives years (i.e. One (1) twelve (12) month Base Year (inclusive of a transitioning period-no more than 60 days) plus four (4) 12 month options). All eligible small businesses are invited to submit capability statements that substantiate their experience and qualifications in performing animal support type services within thirty (30) days from the date of this Sources Sought Notices. Interested firms shall indicate if they have provided similar services to the general public under terms and conditions similar to those stated in this notice (i.e. state name of company; contract number; performance period; dollar amount of contract; type of services; point of contact). Capable statements may be submitted to the attention of Ms. Laura McGrew, Contract Specialist, NIEHS, Office of Acquisition (OA), Contracts Branch C, Keystone Building, 530 Davis Drive, 1st Floor, Cubical 1049, in the Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27709. Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made by the Government nor will offerors be notified of the evaluation of the information received from this Sources Sought Notice.