Background and Objectives: Human activities can increase the amount of pollutants in the environment leading to water pollution. The contamination of surface water and sediments by heavy metals can result in adverse health conditions of humans, due to the bioaccumulation of metals. This study seeks to assess the pollution load of some heavy metals and physiochemical properties in Great Kwa River. Methods: Water samples were collected once a month from three stations within four selected months in wet and dry seasons. Samples were preserved by adding 10 ml of 6 N Nitric acid and stored at 5oC. Laboratory investigations were conducted and data analyzed statistically. Findings: The mean pH, dissolved O2, biological O2 demand, conductivity, NO3, NH4 and temperature were 7.44±1.24, 5.58±0.92, 0.957±0.002, 32.84±2.941, 0.1030±0.1701, 0.113±0.018 and 28.2±1.48, respectively during wet season. Mean concentration of Cu, Fe, Cr, Mn, Zn, Ni are 0.225±0.003, 0.489±0.009, 0.068±0.016, 0.102±0.006, 0.794±0.003, 0.031±0.001, respectively during the wet season. Mean concentration of metals in the river during the wet season were ranked in descending order as Zn > Fe > Cu > Mn > Cr > Ni. Iron (0.489±0.009 mg/l and 0.438±0.003 mg/l), chromium (0.068±0.016 mg/l and 0.055±0.008 mg/l), nickel (0.031±0.001 mg/l and 0.025±0.002 mg/l) were higher than Nigerian standard for drinking water in both seasons. The contamination factor of heavy metals in station 3 were 2.14, 1.56, 1.09, 0.89 for Fe, Cr, Ni, Zn, respectively, indicating moderate contamination. The pollution load index in stations 1, 2, 3 were 0.262, 0.537, 0.981, respectively. Conclusion: The present study provided base-line information on the pollution levels and physiochemical properties of the river. The river was not highly polluted by heavy metals except iron, chromium and nickel that were found above the recommended standards. However, drinking of water from the river over one’s lifetime is not advisable due to detrimental health hazards.

Background: Human activities adversely affect the distribution and diversity of zooplankton. They are diverse group of organisms with little or no locomotive ability and quickly respond to changes in their environment. This research was aimed at providing updated information on the distribution and seasonal variation of zooplankton in Great Kwa River. Materials and Methods: Two sampling stations (S1- Obufa Esuk and S2- Esuk Atu) were mapped along the river bank, samples were collected using plankton net of 55µm mesh size and preserved in 4% formalin. Species were identified using taxonomic keys. Data were analyzed using ecological indices. Results: The results revealed 12 taxa; belonging to 38 species. Tintinnida, Protozoa, Cladocera, Copepoda were 23.1%, 18.5%, 15.4% and 13.3% respectively. The lowest taxonomic groups were Diptera, Foraminitera, Atenatadata and Trichoptera having 1.85% for each order. The highest species was recorded in S2 having 31 species. In both Stations Ascampbelliella acuta was dominance over other species. Shannon-Weiner index (H) were 2.997 and 2.40 in S2 and S1 respectively. The evenness index were 0.576 and 0.547 for S1 and S2 respectively. Margalef,s diversity index were 8.171 and 4.111 for Esuk Atu-S2 and Obufa Esuk-S1 respectively. Zooplankton species were abundant in wet season than dry season. Conclusion: This present study provide updated information on the zooplankton distribution, diversity and seasonal variations of the Great Kwa River. The high dominance of Tintinnida in this study indicates a natural linkage between nano-planktons and macro-planktons in the food webs of the river.

Energy is a fundamental recipe for all life forms. All living things including poultry require energy for cellular activity, growth and reproduction. Energy is basically derived from food nutrient sources such as carbohydrates, excess proteins, fat and oil both of plant and animal sources. The cost of raising poultry has continue to increase due to increasing cost of feedstuff and the poor genetic make-up of birds which confers some breeds with very feed conversion efficiency. A total number of 20day old chicks were used to investigate the effects of inclusion of rice husk as Dietary Supplement in a formulated finisher feed, on growth performance characteristics. Four different levels (0%, 0.6%, 1.0%, and 1.4%) of formulated feed with rice husk as dietary supplement were evaluated in the experiment. Daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio, body weight gain and mortality rate were assessed in all the treatment groups evaluated. The results showed that mean body weight and feed conversion after 8 weeks for diets did not differ significantly (p<0.05). Results of analysis of the four different levels of concentration of rice husk, the control (0%) had the highest body weight followed by 1.4%, then 1.0% and 0.6% after the experiment respectively. In respect to the feed intake, it was observed that treatments with the highest concentration or level of rice husk (1.4%), had the highest feed intake amongst other treatments. This research work showed that rice husk could economically replace other energy sources to a certain extent in the broiler ration. Thus, the inclusion of fibre (rice husk) in feed dilutes energy concentration in the plant fibre and making same available to the poultry for increased growth.

This paper adopted in silico and bioinformatics scientific approaches in revealing the nature of the COVID-19 coronavirus strain in Nigeria. These was revealed in terms of the physical, chemical and biological nature, as well as the isoelectric point, evolutionary relationship, mutation rate and pathway, molecular weight amongst other attributes which project the coronaviruses mutant strains causing the current global pandemic as very deadly and a threat to humanity. The paper revealed the genetic and thermal stability status of the Nigerian (COVID-19) isolate using instability index, aliphatic index, guanine – cytosine content, hydropathicity, nucleotide diversity, amino acids side chains and half-life of the isolate on in vitro human reticulocyte cells as criteria. The paper also revealed the variations in protein structures, phylogeny, bad angles, bad bonds, C-Beta deviations, Ramachandran outliers and Molprobity scores of the virus pathogen in Nigeria and that of Wuhan China, the global epicenter of the pandemic and deduced strong relationship between the strains confirming their common ancestry and nature. The paper revealed that efforts geared towards the development of suitable therapy and vaccines for the COVID-19 globally has not yet been successful due to the variable attenuation coefficients and the fast rate of the S gene mutations of the coronaviruses mutant strains. Hence, the nature of COVID-19 revealed in this study, is necessary for the identification, design and development of effective treatment.