The McConnell Group to provide support staff at Plum Island

DHS has announced it intends to award a sole source contract to The McConnell Group, based in San Antonio, TX, to provide technical support services at the department’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is located off the eastern tip of Long Island.

McConnell will provide professional staff to work at Plum Island in vaccine and therapeutic development, vivarium operations, vaccine and assay development, sample processing, and by supporting the attending veterinarians.

“Specifically, tasks will support the Foreign Animal Disease countermeasure program, including but not limited to, vaccines and antiviral Biotherapeutics,” said an online notice posted by DHS on August 4.

The McConnell Group, whose SciMed Supply Division is headquartered in Rockville, MD, provides a wide variety of professional and technical services to government and commercial customers. “The company was built on a need for a single-source company to meet the infrastructure needs in biomedical research, while addressing and solving some national and world needs in the field of health services,” explains McConnell on its Web site.

The Plum Island contract envisions a one-year base performance period plus two 12-month options.

“The McConnell Group is the only service-disabled veteran owned small business (SDVOSB) capable of supplying the cleared personnel to the Plum Island facility with the required expertise in foreign animal diseases,” says the DHS notice.

Further information is available from Susan Eicher, a contracting officer, at 202-254-2363 or susan.eicher@dhs.gov.