Published date: 16 March 2021

Awarded contract - This means that the contract has been awarded to a supplier.


Closing: 1 March 2021, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research laboratory services - 73111000

Location of contract

Scotland

Value of contract

£39,509

Procurement reference

tender_256319/931571

Published date

16 March 2021

Closing date

1 March 2021

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

1 April 2021

Contract end date

31 December 2021

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Single tender action (below threshold)

A direct contract with a single supplier, without competition.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

No

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, is a chronic disease of cattle, which remains a critical issue in livestock farming in many parts of the world, including the UK. Badgers were first identified as a potential source of the disease in UK cattle in 1971. Traditional genotyping approaches have been used to infer transmission between badgers and cattle. However, these methods have insufficient resolution to identify different sources of infection at finer spatial scales. This limits the value of these approaches to epidemiological investigations which require unravelling the potential transmission pathways amongst affected cattle herds and the local badger population.

Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) provides a far greater level of differentiation of M. bovis strains than traditional genotyping methods. In a previous collaboration between APHA's NWMC (National Wildlife Management Centre), WGS was used to investigate the nature and extent of inter-species transmission in this system. The results of this extensive body of work revealed some key findings:

- Transmission between badgers and cattle in both directions.
- Within-species transmission occurring at higher rates than between species transmission.
- Support for transmission occurring more frequently from badgers to cattle than vice versa
- Evidence for sustained within species transmission of single lineages over long time periods.

Defra have provided APHA with funding for a research project as an extension to the previous collaboration to build on the existing database of M.bovis sequences in this system by sequencing a further 132 isolates.

More information

Attachments

Additional text

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Award information

Awarded date

1 April 2021

Contract start date

1 April 2021

Contract end date

31 December 2021

Total value of contract

£39,509

This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.

The University Court of The University of Edinburgh

Address

Easter Bush, Midlothian, EH25 9RG, Scotland

Reference

No reference - other

Supplier is SME?

No

Supplier is VCSE?

No

About the buyer

Address

Nobel House, 17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
England

Email

network.procurement@defra.gov.uk