March. 2014. Vol. 1, No.5 ISSN 2311-2484 International Journal of Research In Earth & Environmental Sciences © 2013- 2014 IJREES & K.A.J. All rights reserved http://www.ijsk.org/ijrees.html 1 THE EFFECTS OF CRUDE OIL CONTAMINATED FORAGE ON ORGAN DEVELOPMENT OF FEMALE RABBITS Medubari B. Nodu 1 and Elijah I. Ohimain 2 * 1 Department of Animal Science, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria 2 Bioenergy and Environmental Biotechnology Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. * Corresponding author: eohimain@yahoo.com Abstract Oil spill is a major challenge of the petroleum sector. Oil spill on land affects rodents and other burrowers. A study was carried out to assess the impacts of graded oil contaminated forage on the organ development of female rabbits in a completely randomized experimental design. Forty semi-adult female mixed breed rabbits aged 16 – 17 weeks weighing 1.30 - 1.42kg were used for this study. The forty rabbits were therefore randomly allocated to the five dietary groups including the control (A), which was fed with plain feed containing no crude oil. Four other groups contained 0.05 %, 0.10%, 0.15% and 0.20% of crude oil contaminated forage representing treatments B, C, D and E respectively. After 24 weeks, results showed that the organs of the female rabbits including ovary size and weight, heart, liver and kidney weights decreased as the percentage of crude oil in the contaminated forage increased. It can therefore be concluded that the crude oil contaminated forage decreased the performance of female rabbits. Key words: Oil spill, performance, organ development 1.0 Introduction Crude oil exploration and production is the most important economic activity in Nigeria. Crude oil accounts for 80% of Nigeria export, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and 20% of her GDP (Nwilo and Badejo, 2005). The country is ranked as the 12 th largest producers and 7 th largest exporter of crude oil in the world (Ohimain, 2013). Oil and gas exploration has contributed immensely to the development of the Nigerian state and economic empowerment of multinational oil corporations, but to the neglect of the host communities, who bear the brunt of oil exploration. Host communities suffer for the direct environmental impacts of oil exploration such as oil spills, routine gas flaring and disposal of oily waste water and produced water. The environmental impacts of decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta has manifested as contaminated surface and ground water, vegetation and soil pollution, depletions of fisheries and air pollution (Moffat and Linden, 1995; UNEP, 2011). Oil spill is one of the major cause of concern for the Nigerian government, operating oil companies and host communities. When oil spill occurs it affects virtually all facets of the environment including air, surface and ground water, sediment and soil, vegetation, fisheries and wildlife. And because humans are linked to their environment, oil spill could directly or indirectly threatens the nutrition, economic activities and health of the host communities. For instance, in Ogoni land, UNEP (2011) reported that oil spills affected surface and ground water, sediment, soil, vegetation and fisheries and other natural resources that the people are dependent upon for their survival. In the past, oil spill was mostly caused by routine production activities of multinationals such as equipment failure, and pipeline corrosion. Now, crude oil spill incidents and quantity spilled are increasing mainly due to illegal bunkering and artisanal refining (Ogbeibu and Iyobosa, 2013; Ogodo and Esemuede, 2013). Ogbeibu and Iyobosa (2013) estimated that about 10% Nigerian oil is lost to oil vandal annually.