ABSTRACT
Fusarium oxysporum is an important pathogen of a wide range of crop plants. The study was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding a blend of sorghum grains contaminated with Fusarium oxysporum on the blood picture and the histology of the kidney and liver of adult wistar rats. A total of thirty (30) rats of the wistar species weighing between 150 and 180g were divided into four experimental groups and a control group comprising six(6) rats in each group and fed for twenty eight days(28).The diet consisted control(group 1),25% contaminated meal(group 2),50% contaminated(group 3),75% contaminated(group 4) and 100% contaminated meals(group 5). At the end of the experiment the RBC, WBC and differential WBC counts did not show any significant differences (P 0.05).the histological studies however showed damage to the kidney tissue under light microscopy. They were characterized by degraded renal tubules, necrosis of glomerular cells, and apoptotic bodies in areas between the renal tubules infiltrated by mononuclear cells. The liver histology showed by light microscopy, loss of hepatic architecture, pyknotic nuclei and infiltration by mononuclear cells. It was therefore concluded that Fusarium oxysporum has caused marked inflammation and tubular necrosis in the rat's kidney as well as inflammation and parenchymal necrosis in the liver with no significant changes in the blood picture.