Abattoirs are known all over the world to pollute the environment either directly or indirectly from their various processes. The aim of this work is to determine the bacterial load, antibiotic resistance and plasmid profile of resistant bacteria isolated from government and private abattoirs around in Ikpoba River in Benin City. Bacteria and coliform count were done using pour plating method. The total viable bacteria counts ranged 4.2x10 5 ±1.8-1.5xl0 6 ± 0.7 cfu/ml and 1.3x10 6 ± 0.1-3.1 x 10 6 ± 0.5cfu/ml for government and private abattoir respectively, The coliform count ranged from 2.7x10 5 ± 0.1-3.8xl0 5 ±1.4 cfu/ml and 5.5x10 5 ±0.3-9:2xl0 5 ±0.4 cfu/ml for government and private abattoir respectively. Escherichia coli, Streptococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeriginosa, Enterobacter aerogenes, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtills and Staphylococcus aureuswere isolated and identified by cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics. Susceptibility of the microbes was determined. The isolates were resistant to most of the commonly used antibiotics. Plasmid profile of isolates was also determined. The profile study shows that all resistant bacterial isolates harbored plasmid mediated resistance to antibiotics which was confirmed by plasmid curing. Therefore this research showed contamination of abattoirs effluents with antibiotic resistant bacterial isolates. This specially calls for treatment of the wastewater before discharging into the river.

Difference in soil qualities has been noticeable in many soils due to anthropogenic sources, especially of automobile battery wastes. This study examines the effects of automobile battery wastes on the physicochemical properties of the soil. Soil samples for this study were collected in triplicates from three battery chargers' workshops: Adolor, Edaiken and Uwelu in Benin City, Edo State at 0-15cm depth, in the months of August, September and October. The soil physicochemical parameters analyzed indicate variations of values in the contaminated soil over uncontaminated soil (control). Among the parameters examined, conductivity was significantly (P<0.01) higher in the contaminated soil (59.3-184mho/cm) than in the uncontaminated soil. Notably, a more acidic pH value of 3.7-4.5 was also recorded beyond standard limits of 6.5~8.5. Meanwhile phosphorus was relatively high (1.95-3.35) and nitrogen (0.08-0.15) was low as against the control value of 2.71 and 0.18 respectively. Heavy metals such as Lead (Pb), Zinc (Zn), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr) and Copper (Cu) were present in different concentrations in contaminated soil sample which ranges from far above acceptable standard limit between (0.288-0.875, 0.757-1.342, 0.108-0.279, 0.718-1.062 and 0.272-0.518 mg/kg) compared to their values in the control soil sample having 0.003, 0.125, 0, 0 and 0.063 mg/kg respectively. Battery wastes were found to be significant sources of Cadmium and Chromium, as none of both was detected in the control soil sample. The daily activities of auto-mechanic battery workshops have negative impacts on soil physicochemical properties. Note, the soil in mechanic battery workshops needs urgent cleanup to minimize contamination of ecological materials and public health implication. This work will prove valuable in providing baseline information for further soil quality monitoring studies in study area

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