Cadmium (Cd), a prevalent heavy metal pollutant, is known for its harmful effects on physiological functions within the biological system. In this study, the effects of Cd exposure on some kidney related biochemical and histopathological parameters in rabbits were investigated, alongside exploring the potential protective role of methanolic extract from Phoenix dactylifera (MEPD) on the kidney. The study included 45 male rabbits, aged 24-28 weeks and weighing approximately 1.41-1.43 kg were assigned into five (5) treatment groups (control, Cd-only, Cd + 300 mg MEPD, Cd + 600 mg MEPD and Cd + 900 mg MEPD) in a completely randomized design. The rabbits received a 7-day dose of 3 mg CdCl2/kg feed, followed by MEPD every 72 hours for 28 days. Results revealed higher significant (P<0.05) differences in serum glucose, urea and creatinine in Cd-only treated group when compared with the control group. MEPD treatment significantly (P<0.05) lowered serum glucose levels in Cd-exposed rabbits, indicating a potential glycemic modulating activity, but had no significant (P>0.05) effect on urea and creatinine concentrations. High density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and cholesterol ratios were not significantly different but showed marginal improvement in the Cd+MEPD groups compared to the Cd-only group. The findings also revealed significant differences in both absolute and relative kidney weights between the group treated with Cd alone and the control group, indicating potential renal injury induced by Cd. Histopathological examination revealed kidney damage in Cd-exposed rabbits, with observed changes such as disruption of Bowman’s capsule, glomerular shrinkage, degeneration of renal tubules and haemorrhage. The administration of MEPD did not ameliorate the observed histopathological alterations. In conclusion, this study suggests that Cd exposure may induce hyperglycemia and kidney injury in rabbits. MEPD treatment demonstrated some protective effects against Cd-induced hyperglycemia but did not significantly mitigate kidney damage.

Parasitic nematode infection in animal is one of the main causes for the mortality of animals and most of the treatment relies on the use of the anthelmintic drugs to overcome such a problem. However, the heavy use of anthelmintic contributed to the problem of multidrug resistance. This study was carried out to investigate the infectiveness of Punica granatum (aqueous leaf and peel extracts) as an alternative treatment. This study utilised the in-vitro assay technique (motility assayand larval migration inhibition assay) to determine the effect of the extracts on the survival of L3 stage of parasitic nematodes.The results showed that incubation of L3 in different concentrations (5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mg/ml) of extracts paralysed and killed the worms after 24 hours and 48 hours ofincubation periods. The same results were obtained from larval migration inhibition assay, showing that both extracts of Punicagranatum inhibited the migration of the L3. After 2 hours of incubation in the leaf extract (5 mg/ml), the migration of nematode larvae was inhibited to 56±12.29% as compared tothe control. While for the peel extract the percentage of migration was reduced to 53 ±3.33%. Further reduction of the migration was observed at 10, 20 and 50 mg/ml of leaf extract.