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PRE-SOLICITATION NOTICE – NOTICE OF INTENT

NOI-NIAID-2152497

NAICS – 311119

This is a Notice of Intent, not a request for proposal. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to negotiate on an other than full and open competition basis with Animal Specialties and Provisions South, LLC to procure laboratory animal feed and bedding for the Translational Research Program of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) animal program in Bethesda, MD.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) intends to procure on a sole source basis from Animal Specialties and Provisions South, LLC a twelve (12) month estimated supply of PMI Certified Irradiated PicoLab Guinea Pig Diet 30LB (480 bags), item # RHI50E6C6N, for the VRC and the laboratory animals currently on site. The order period is 01/01/2023 – 12/31/2023. The order is for multiple deliveries during the order period for 40 bags each delivery to be scheduled monthly for delivery to the Bethesda, MD NIH campus. Purina Mills lab animal diets will be procured for rodents. The specific feeds have been analyzed and tested appropriately for each species and is being given to research animals as approved by the Animal Program Director. Feed is a fundamental requirement to keep animals alive and is required to maintain the micro-environment and provide enrichment in accordance with federal regulations for research animals.

Animal Specialties and Provisions South, LLC is the current vendor of feed, bedding and enrichment to the NIAID vivariums. The exact recipe used to achieve these controlled nutritional formulas is specific to and patented by Purina Mills; no other vendor can manufacture the exact same feed. Purina Mills specific patented formulation of diets have been used for long term research studies which are still ongoing. All scientific variables must be reduced to ensure repeatable and reliable results. Since changing feed introduces a variable that may adversely affect research results, and since Animal Specialties and Provisions South, LLC is the sole east coast distributor of Purina Mills diets for laboratory animals, Animal Specialties and Provisions South, LLC is the sole source for this requirement. Feed and bedding could not be ordered from any other vendor without prior testing to ensure exact nutritional formulation and consistency over time were identical to the existing vendor. This would take many months and be very expensive to the Government. Complete scientific review from the Principal Investigator and the facility veterinarian would be required and testing a new brand of feed would not guarantee the time and money would be well spent as it may fail to pass the nutritional or quality tests. It is therefore in the best interest of the Government to award to Animal Specialties and Provisions South, LLC as a sole source.

Place of Performance: NIH, 9000 Rockville Pike, BLDG 40, Bethesda, MD 20892, United States. FOB: Destination

The statutory authority for this sole source requirement is 41 U.S.C. 1901 (a) (1) as implemented by FAR 13.106-1 only one responsible source and no other supply of service will satisfy agency requirements. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. All responsible sources that could provide comparable services may submit a capability statement that will be considered by email (subject line to reference NOI-NIAID-2152497 to Dana Monroe at dana.monroe@nih.gov by 5:00pm PDST Wednesday, December 7, 2022. All responses received by the closing date of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. A determination not to compete this requirement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.