Renibacteirum salmoninarum probiotic challenge, validation and molecular analysis

1. ADVANCED CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE (ACAN) An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier. 2.1 Portée The Project Authority is a Biologist at the Saint Andrews Biological Station and has been funded under DFO’s Competitive Science Research Fund to carry out research into understanding the impacts of disease and feed additives on the health and, microbiota of the host and pathogen virulence using recent local isolates of Renibacterium salmoniarum. This work is to be focused on the impacts to farm reared Atlantic Salmon and in parallel, the opportunistic study of wild salmon responses and natural state of the microbiome will be assessed for comparison. DFO is seeking a Contractor that must provide Quality Assurance/Quality Controlled analytical data and the ability to carry out work under aquatic animal pathogen containment level 2 guidelines. This applies to organic and inorganic chemistry, feeds analysis, fish pathogen, genetics and molecular biology analyses. All sampling will be conducted at the St. Andrews Biological Station, and it is a requirement that the Contractor be within short driving distance (two hours) for sample delivery (to prevent degradation of samples). 2.1.1 Objective: The primary objectives of this research are: 1) Improve the knowledge of recent isolates of Renibacterium salmonarum (Rsal) - characterization, virulence and host response. 2) Broaden the knowledge of natural wild fish microbial community structure and allow for ARB/ARG comparison to lab reared animals and gain understanding of community composition in response to probiotic addition and also disease. 3) Carry out disease challenges examining the potential of an available probiotic to influence survivourship outcomes against Renibacterium salmonarum. 4) Help to inform future mitigation options for disease management. The Contractor, in collaboration with the PA, will be responsible for objectives 1 through 4, developing a unique exposure model while investigating the virulence of selected Rsal isolates and running disease challenges with multiple treatment groups. (See ACAN document for complete definition of the requirements) 3. CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT OF THE STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES (MINIMUM ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS) Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements: 1. The Supplier must have facilities, technical skills, experience, and equipment required to conduct a broad range of molecular and genetic analysis on pathogens and the ability to grow and isolate pathogens as well as experience with live aquatic animal disease challenge models. 2. The Supplier’s premises must be within a two-hour driving distance of the St. Andrews Biological Station to ensure sample integrity of samples. 3. The Supplier must be able to use analytical methods that are compatible with those applied to existing datasets, to support continuity and comparability of test results. 4. The Supplier must have demonstrated knowledge of the aquaculture sector in Canada to anticipate and interact with animal health staff in the efforts around pathogen determination and optimal strain selection. 5. The Supplier must have significant experience (at least 60 months) in disease challenge support, and handling on disease positive tissues. 6. The Supplier must have significant experience (at least 60 months) in relevant quality assurance and control of pathogen isolates, data and analysis of infected tissues. 7. The supplier must have significant experience (at least 60 months) in quality control of samples and provided isolates, data-sharing, digitization of data, and data summaries. See ACAN document for complete details.