The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), intends to award a sole source contract to Illumina located in San Diego, CA for Bovine HD Whole- Genome Genotyping Beadchip.  The requirement is for 3 units of a high density SNP genotyping assay that can process a minimum of 8 samples per beadchip with each beadchip containing enough SNP assays for Genotype>700,00 loci per sample.  Each Beadchip assay must be accompanied by reagents for amplifying, fragmenting, hybridizing, labeling and detecting 96 samples.  This requirement consists of 3 packs of 96 assays or 288 sample assays.  The reagants and assays must be compatible with existing laboratory equipment for generating SNP genotypes, which is currently based on Illumina technology.  Illumina is the only company that provides high density (>700,000) SNP genotyping in cattle.  Illumina is the sole provider of SNP genotying assays that are compatiable with iScan genotyping instrumentation for analysis that are currently used in the ARS laboratory.

Anticipated date of award:  May 12, 2010