The Food and Drug Administration intends to award a non-competitive, sole source contract to the University of Maryland to collect samples from retail meats originating from organic or natural farms and determine antimicrobial-susceptibility profiles for three strains of bacteria associated with foodborne disease, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Enterococcus. The work to be performed includes obtaining identified retail organic meat samples, examining the samples for the presence of Enterococcus, Campylobacter, and Salmonella, confirming their identity using biochemical tests, and processing these samples to permit freezer storage of multiple isolates from each sample for further analyses. These analyses include examining the bacterial isolates for their virulence potential by the identification of their virulence genes, determining comprehensive antibiograms of these isolates using a commercially available panel of 17 antibiotics, and performing DNA fingerprinting to determine the clonality of these isolates. Other parties interested in and capable of performing this shall work shall submit their capability statement on or before August 16, 2002. These statements must show that the proposed principal investigator is an expert in the detection of pathogens in food products and in food microbiology. Offerors must also demonstrate experience working with Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococcus, and other foodborne bacterial pathogens, collecting surveillance data on antimicrobial-resistant bacteria isolated from retail meats and/or retail organic meats, and expertise in mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and resistance gene transfer.

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