The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is inviting tenders for testing equipment for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and scrapie.

The department operates a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Surveillance Programme throughout the country.

One element of the programme involves the extraction and transportation of brain tissue matter from carcasses at knackeries and slaughter plants to a designated rapid testing laboratory for post-mortem assessment.

DAFM said that it requires a packaging solution for the storage and transportation of brain tissue matter conforming to the packaging standards for liquid substances.

The department said that the absorbent material for inclusion within the secondary packaging must be capable of absorbing up to 600ml liquid.

The successful tenderer will also supply sampling spoons for use in the extraction of brain tissue matter from carcasses at knackeries and slaughter plants.

DAFM said that the spoons "should be capable of transferring the brain tissue via the mouth of the sample pot without spillage".

Currently, separate designed spoons are used for BSE and scrapie sampling.

"The packaging shall be of good quality, strong enough to withstand the shocks and loadings normally encountered during carriage," the department said.

Based on current information available, the department estimated that the following supply may be required annually:

23,000 scrapie samples (to include 10,000 factory and 10,000 knackery samples);
60,000 BSE knackery samples;
1,500 BSE samples at slaughter plants.

The closing date for the submissions of tenders for the contract worth €800,000 is 3:00p.m on May 29.

The department noted that 50 samples for each spoon type and one sample for each other item must be submitted by post by the deadline.