Agriculture and Irrigation - Advanced Contract Award Notice / Notice of Proposed Procurement - TeSeE NSP II PrP Purification System

Sole Source is proposed to the manufacturer and sole distributor, Bio-Rad Laboratories (Canada) Ltd. in Mississauga, Ontario for the purchase of TeSeE NSP II PrP Purification Systems for TSE Screening of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), Scrapie, and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). The test is for the exclusive use of Agriculture and Irrigation’s Agri-Food Assurance laboratories (Purchaser). The TeSeE system and kits are proprietary ELISA biological tests designed for detecting prions in brain and other animal tissues. These kits are the only ones certified by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) for use in detecting Scrapie and CWD in the National TSE Laboratory Network laboratories. The Agri-Food Assurance laboratories are a part of this national network. The Purchaser must use Bio-Rad test kits, which are approved by the CFIA. When the Purchaser sought approval from the CFIA to test for BSE, Bio-Rad was the only rapid test approved. While the CFIA has since approved the Prionics test for use in Canada, it is only approved for BSE testing. However, the Purchaser is testing for BSE, Scrapie, and Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which can only be conducted using Bio-Rad test kits. Therefore, the Purchaser must continue using Bio-Rad test kits. This acquisition is in accordance with Chapter 5 (Government Procurement) of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, New West Partnership Trade Agreement, Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement, and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. All questions relative to this notice must be directed to Elizabeth Mangali, Purchasing Officer at Elizabeth.Mangali@gov.ab.ca or 780-427-1103.