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Board of Trustees Meeting |
Agenda Item: New Business
Discussion and/or approval to go out to bid and purchase from the lowest responsible bidder equipment for in-house testing of chicken blood using Enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) screening for virus detection in an amount not to exceed $18,000.00, from Fund # 8415.01.400, Laboratory Capital Outlay.
Background:
Enzyme-linked immunoassay, or EIA,
is a rapid test where an antibody or antigen is linked to an enzyme as a means
of detecting a match between the antibody and antigen. EIA is the first and most basic test to
determine if a tested organism is positive (has antibodies) for a selected
pathogen, such as the alphavirus, western equine encephalomyelitis virus
(WEEV), flaviviruses,
The in-house test will provide Alphavirus positive/negative and Flavivirus positive/negative results within 24-48 hours, compared to 10-14+ days (some times up to 30 days) through the State. These results are preliminary for Flavivirus because WNV and SLEV cannot be separated with this method as the screening EIA is genus, but not species, specific. There is, also, a possibility of a non-specific reaction causing a sample to be a false positive. For one year and as needed to confirm the test, parallel samples and sera will be sent to DPH for end-point PRNT, or similar testing, to confirm and separate WNV from SLEV.
Staff Recommendation:
Approve staff to go out to bid and purchase from the lowest responsible bidder the equipment for in-house testing of chicken blood using Enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) screening for virus detection in an amount not to exceed $18,000.00 from Fund # 8415.01.400, Laboratory Capital Outlay.
Fiscal Impact:
Currently, there is $19,796.90
available in Fund # 8415.01.400, Capital Outlay, which is 79% of the budgeted
amount. This purchase will account for
approximately 90 % of the remaining balance.