Exposure of infants to aflatoxin M1from mothers’ breast milk in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Abstract

During a survey of the occurrence of aflatoxins in mothers’ breast milk carried out in Abu Dhabi, involving 445 donors at the Cornich Hospital and the Al Nehyan Clinic for Maternity and Childhood, 99.5% of samples were found to contain aflatoxin M₁ at concentrations ranging from 2 pg ml⁻¹ to 3 ng ml⁻¹. The mothers represented a wide range of nationalities, ages and health status and the opportunity was used to seek any correlation between these factors and the concentration of aflatoxin M₁ in breast milk. The protein, fat and lactose contents of milk samples were also determined and the possibility of any correlation between any of these and aflatoxin M₁ was studied.