The slaughtering of animals and processing of meats for human consumption generates enormous wastes which are not properly managed in most developing nations including Nigeria. Majority of people in Akwa Ibom state in southern Nigeria depend on meat as their major source of protein, and abattoir wastes are applied in farms as organic manure by some farmers. This study examined the role of abattoir-related waste products in the physicochemical properties, total metal, and metal speciation of the soil. The data obtained were also subjected to some treatments using some environmental models to establish the degree of contamination by the parameters determined, studied locations, and the associated human health problems. Samples were collected from 5 designated abattoirs in Akwa Ibom state. Thirty composite samples were used for the research. Results obtained showed higher levels of pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter, and cation exchange capacity in the abattoir waste–impacted soils than in the control plot. Levels of pseudo total heavy metals were also higher in the studied soils than in the control plot. The mean values of the metals are below 400, 85, 140, 36, 100, and 35 mg/kg of recommended limits for Fe, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, and Ni, respectively by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) in Nigerian soil. The results also revealed that Fe and Cr existed mainly in residual fraction. However, Zn, Cu, and Ni existed principally in the form bound to organic matter/sulfide. In addition, we detected that Pb existed mainly in the reducible fraction. Disparities were also observed in the speciation results of the metals between the studied soils and the control plot. Principal component analysis (PCA) indentified that both the geogenic and anthropogenic factors contributed to the accumulation of metals determined in the studied soils. Variable relationships were also observed for the heavy metals determined in the studied soils. Fe showed a high-risk potential, and children were more vulnerable due to its toxicity. We conclude this study was able to expose the consequences of indiscriminate dumping of abattoir wastes on the quality of soil and the associated human health problems.

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Influence of abattoir wastes on physicochemical and microbiological properties of soil samples obtained from Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria were investigated using standard analytical and microbiological methods. Studied abattoirs and the control soils were in the sandy-clay-loamy soil category with varying quantities of sand, silt and clay. Bulk density, pH, electrical conductivities, salinity, moisture content, total organic and carbon content, cation exchange capacities, total petroleum hydrocarbon, nitrogen and phosphorus contents of studied abattoir soils were higher than in control. Essential elements (K, Na, Ca, and Mg) and trace metals (Fe, Zn, Cd, Cu, Pb, Cr and Ni) levels were also higher in abattoir soils than in control though were within the permissible limit in soil except for Fe. Metal pollution index (MPI), enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (Igeo), degree of contamination (Cdeg) and pollution load index (PLI) of trace metals have also been calculated using existing pollution models. Microbial studies revealed total heterotrophic bacteria ranged from 6.41±0.43 to 7.91±0.58 log 10 CFU/g while fungal count ranged from 4.94±0.26 to 5.79±0.34 log 10 CFU/g. Among the four (4) locations, IK2 had the highest heterotrophic bacterial Original Research Article

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