6525--Animal Food & Bedding

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Research and Development, intends to contract on a sole source basis with Envigo RMS, Inc. to provide Animal Food and Bedding on an as-needed basis. The Animal Food and Bedding must continue to be from the same contractor in support of the Principle Investigator (PI) Managing Director of the Veterinary Medical Unit (VMU), Ms. Gina Orcino, BS, CMAR, RLATg, R&D Department, at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (VAMC) in San Francisco, California. The VMU uses specific diet and bedding for its research animals. Envigo creates the diet specific to the needs of this facility. The food and bedding are vital to research as their products are proprietary and cannot be purchased from other vendors. Switching diet and bedding brands in the middle of ongoing animal research projects can significantly alter data trends. Thus, using a different company to fulfill this requirement is not a viable option; data trends would be altered and the results would be unnecessarily skewed thereby making the research projects invalid. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals; however, any responsible source who believes it is capable of meeting the requirement may submit a capability statement to the contracting office no later than Sunday, January 22 2023 at 3:00 PM EST. Interest/capability statements may be sent to robin.simmons@va.gov. No telephone responses will be accepted. A determination not to compete the proposed requirement based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the