Agricultural, farming, fishing, forestry and related products

Tender description

AHDB require services/expertise for the delivery of a national pig carcase classification approval trial in Great Britain to include scientific and statistical expertise; CT scanning equipment and technicians; carcase dissection technicians. AHDB is seeking services/expertise for the delivery of a national pig carcase classification approval trial in Great Britain, including scientific and statistical expertise, CT scanning service (equipment and technicians to operate it) and carcase dissection technicians’. The current system of assessing the value of a pig carcase is inadequate for the effective transmission of market signals from consumer to producer and through exploration it has been concluded that there are two new classification devices that should be tested to evaluation their potential to provide a more complete assessment of yield from the carcase. AHDB is therefore planning an evaluation trial for these classification devices in 2020 and are seeking the provision of interrelated expert services to support the delivery of the trial: 1) Scientific and statistical expertise. This expertise may be required 20 days from July 2020 until January 2021. Further ad-hoc services may be required until June 2021. 2) Provision of a mobile Computer Tomography scanning service (CT equipment and technician/s) for the determination of reference lean meat content in pig carcases. The duration will be 20 to 40 consecutive days between September to November 2020. 3) Dissection technicians to undertake the physical anatomical dissection of 27 pig carcases for ‘validation’ of the CT reference method. The duration will be 20 to 40 consecutive days between September to November 2020. Bids are sought from individual suppliers or collaborations/consortia that can offer the full package of the three listed components. If this is not possible, AHDB will accept proposals for provision of one or two part/s of the package. Parties interested in receiving the specification and relevant details, please email: procurement@ahdb.org.uk AHDB is seeking external expertise to facilitate the proper conduct of the trial and provide technical and statistical support across all the components of this project. It is anticipated that much of this can be provided remotely, but site visits, and meetings with AHDB within the UK, may be required. Initially up to 20 days from July 2020 to January 2021; thereafter further services may be required until June 2021. To receive full details and specification, please email: procurement@ahdb.org.uk To deliver the trial will require a team of 2/3 technicians skilled in pig carcase dissection. The team may be provided by one provider or assembled from separate service providers. The duration will be 20 to 40 consecutive days between September to November 2020. Provision of a mobile computer tomography scanning service (CT equipment and technician/s) for the determination of reference lean meat content in pig carcases — as part of the full programme of work. The duration will be 20 to 40 consecutive days between September to November 2020.