SOLICITATION NOTICE
65 -- Individually Ventilated Cages, Racks and Associated Parts and Accessories
- Notice Date
- 8/19/2014
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 339999
— All Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Office of Acquisitions, Office of Management, 530 Davis Drive, Durham, North Carolina, 27713, United States
- ZIP Code
- 27713
- Solicitation Number
- DJG6202014
- Archive Date
- 9/19/2014
- Point of Contact
- Hamilton L. Brown, Phone: 919-541-7821, Velvet m Torain, Phone: 919-541-0400
- E-Mail Address
-
hamilton.brown@nih.gov, torain@niehs.nih.gov
(hamilton.brown@nih.gov, torain@niehs.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This is a Presolicitation notice for the previously posted Source Sought notice DJG6202014 entitled Individually Ventilated Cages (IVC), Racks, and Associated Parts/Accessories for Mice and Rats. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) intends to issue a solicitation in the form of a Request for Proposals (RFP) on or about August 25, 2014 in accordance with the acquisition procedures of FAR Part 12. The RFP will solicit qualified Small Businesses which have the ability to provide new ventilated caging systems to replace the current static caging thereby maximizing the Institute's housing capacity and increasing biosecurity for mouse and rat rooms. NIEHS currently houses approximately 34,000 rodents in 16,000 cages. This is a Pre Solicitation Notice in accordance with FAR Part 5.203(a)(1). The North American Classification Code (NAICS) is 339999 and the business size standard is 500. THIS IS A SMALL BUSINESS SET ASIDE. Proposals are being solicited only from small business concerns. Offers received from concerns that are not small business concerns shall be considered nonresponsive and will be rejected. Any award resulting from this solicitation will be made to a small business concern. Specifications: 1. Ventilated rack systems must not require facility renovations, including alterations to the building HVAC system, in order to accommodate their use. 2. The equipment must provide a micro-environment that will meet or exceed the housing specifications listed in the 2011 Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/Guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals.pdf). 3. Racks must be available with multiple space configurations for both species (mouse and rat) to allow for flexible room design and provide maximum cage capacities per animal room. 4. The system must be capable of operating and maintaining containment in negative, as well as positive pressure modes. System must have the capability to connect and exhaust through the existing facility exhaust system if required. 5. Mouse racks must have the ability to be equipped with water bottle leak detection monitoring at the cage level. 6. Equipment must be capable of operating with a mobile air handler (not rack mounted), to minimize vibration at the cage level which is disruptive to rodents and could impact on parameters such as breeding. 7. Air handlers must be equipped with alarms that are capable of connectivity for remote monitoring. The alarms must have a non-audible option to ensure minimal disruption to rodents. 8. The operation of the air handling units must not impact the ability of the building HVAC units to meet the ventilation and heat load limitations of the animal room. 9. The air handling unit control screens must be able to be darkened when user chooses to eliminate disruption to the circadian rhythm as a research variable and/or adverse effect on the health of the animals. 10. All (rat/mouse) racks must be constructed of high quality and corrosion resistant stainless steel and durable plastic/rubber components that can be repeatedly washed and autoclaved. 11. Mouse racks must be available as single or double sided with a variety of configurations, offering designs capable of housing 70 to 160 cages/racks. a. Rack Height from the floor to the highest placed cage on the rack must not exceed 80 inches. b. Rack Length must not exceed 70 inches. c. Rack Width must not exceed 36 inches. This ensures that animals can be visualized without the use of anything more than a two-step ladder to ensure ergonomic safety as well as maximizes housing capacity within available animal room floor space. 12. Rat racks must be available as a single or double sided rack with a variety of configurations offering designs capable of housing 12 to70 cages/rack. a. Rack Height from the floor to the highest placed cage on the rack must not exceed 80". b. Rack Length must not exceed 77". c. Rack Width must not exceed 36". This ensures that animals can be visualized without the use of anything more than a two-step ladder to ensure ergonomic safety as well as maximizes housing capacity within available animal room floor space. 13. Cage suspension runners must be free of rivets and screws, racks must have minimal screws and rivets to reduce the number of areas where dirt, dust, and pathogens could accumulate. 14. Cage and Rack air flow components (supply and exhaust ports/connections) must be constructed of smooth, non-tacky materials to eliminate the possibility of dust and/or bedding being attracted to the surface of the port to prevent any blocking of the exhaust and interfering with the air flow through the cage. 15. Cages must pass an NIEHS smoke test in order to prove air containment with no air leakage problems at the supply or exhaust ports and the sipper tube opening. 16. When removed from air supply, the cage unit will maintain a complete seal without the possibility of unfiltered air entry into the cage unit or air escape from the cage unit at any point. This capability must be confirmable by previously referenced smoke test. 17. All (rat/mouse) caging and water bottles (no automatic watering used) must be constructed of a high temp polysulfone or similar material that will not release Bisphenol A (BPA). Cages must have adequate filter space capable of maintaining the micro-environment in a passive/static mode in the event of a power failure for a minimum of 72 hours to ensure survivability of the animals. 18. All (rat/mouse) water bottles for all cage sizes required must be external to the cage, and have the ability to be placed and removed without handling the cage itself in order to prevent disruption to the animal, impacts to the scientific research, and additional labor burden to the staff. 19. All (rat/mouse) water bottle sipper tubes must be conical in shape to ensure maximum use of the water in the bottle and the animals' access to it. 20. All (rat/mouse) water bottle sipper tubes must be equipped with a gasket that ensures a seal at the point at which the sipper tube enters the cage lid to ensure that the cage is a sealed unit which provides needed biosecurity. This capability must be confirmable by the previously referenced smoke test. 21. Mouse cage floor area must be at least 81 square inches to ensure housing density compliance with the eighth edition of the Guide for the Care and use of Laboratory Animals for the housing of three adult mice with a litter present. 22. The IVC system must support up to a 14-day cage change interval. 23. Rat cage floor area must be of two (2) configurations. a. One on a single level that offers at least 140 sq. in, and b. One on two levels that offers at least 280 sq. in, to maximize housing density, encourage normal rat behaviors of sitting, standing and climbing, and offer enough space to house rats that have undergone surgical implantation or manipulation. c. Both configurations must support a 7-day change interval. 24. All (rat/mouse) caging must be equipped with latches at both the back and front of the cages to secure the lid to the cage bottoms and to mechanically engage the cage/lid gasket to ensure proper cage seal to protect the microenvironment and preclude the animals from escaping should the cage be dropped or mishandled. 25. All (rat/mouse) racks must have the ability to be easily disassembled from the blower, sanitized, autoclaved, and reconnected to blower motors by one (1) individual without the use of a ladder or stool for staff safety considerations to prevent injury. Additionally, all components that require periodic replacement such as air handling unit filters, must be readily accessible and simple to change. 26. All air supply to the cage must enter the cage at the cage lid level and not at the nest level in order to mitigate animal anxiety related behavior changes and support animal preference for air entry, thereby minimizing the potential for added variability to research projects currently being conducted, and support animal welfare 27. All fixed plenums must be vertical to ensure adequate drainage of water during and after the wash cycle in order to prevent microbial and viral agent retention after sanitation procedures, thereby ensuring animals are protected from the transmission of pathogens via plenum contamination. Additionally, all removable plenums must have the ability to be removed and replaced by one (1) individual without the use of a ladder or step stool for lab safety considerations to prevent injury. Additional Requirements: The contractor shall - 1. Provide support over the telephone, in person, on-site, or via email. Qualified contractor representatives shall be available to provide support Monday thru Friday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM EST, excluding federal holidays. Response time for call back shall be within two (2) hours of a support call being placed. 2. Include eight (8) complete Operation and Maintenance Manuals for each piece of equipment listed in Article B.2. 3. As part of the first delivery and set-up of each piece of equipment listed in the Article B.2., train NIEHS staff (40-45 people) on its operation and maintenance. 4. Provide annual equipment calibration and troubleshooting support, as needed, which includes, but may not be limited to, ensuring proper operating requirements are met and verified in accordance with the 2011 Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (The Guide) (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/Guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals.pdf). Mandatory Requirements All equipment must be in compliance with the 2011 Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/Guide-for-the-Care-and-Use-of-Laboratory-Animals.pdf). Contract Duration A five year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract with fixed price delivery orders will be negotiated. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code identified for this requirement is 339999 with a size standard of 500 employees. The expected release date of the RFP is August 25, 2014. In accordance with FAR 5.203(a)(1), as this is a commercial-off-the-shelf requirement, the receipt date for proposals is anticipated to be September 4, 2014.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NIEHS/DJG6202014/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: NIH/NIEHS, Rall Building, 111 TW Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, 27709, United States
- Zip Code: 27709
- Zip Code: 27709
- Record
- SN03470556-W 20140821/140819235746-b3045762af5f0922a80b9e7674a25416 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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