Aflatoxin exposure among lactating women in southern Ethiopia

Bergene Boshe; Samson Gebremedhin; Fikadu Alemayehu; Mesfin Eshete; Mestawet Taye; Barbara J Stoecker

doi:10.1002/fsn3.1968

Aflatoxin exposure among lactating women in southern Ethiopia

Food Sci Nutr. 2020 Oct 26;8(12):6738-6745. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.1968. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Bergene Boshe¹, Samson Gebremedhin², Fikadu Alemayehu¹, Mesfin Eshete¹, Mestawet Taye³, Barbara J Stoecker⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Nutrition, Food Science and Technology Hawassa University Hawassa Ethiopia.
² School of Public Health Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
³ School of Animal and Range Sciences Hawassa University Hawassa Ethiopia.
⁴ College of Human Sciences Oklahoma State University Stillwater OK USA.

Abstract

In Ethiopia and many other low-income countries, little is known about the exposure of lactating women to aflatoxin, which is a major health concern to the mother and her nursing infant. We determined the aflatoxin B₁ contamination of family foods (AFB₁) and urinary aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁) of lactating women in Sidama, southern Ethiopia, and compared the levels across agroecological settings (lowland, midland, highland) and two seasons. We conducted two surveys (n = 360) that represented the dry and wet seasons of the locality. AFM₁ and AFB₁ were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was made using Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The median (interquartile range) AFB₁ was 0.94 (0.63-1.58) ppb. AFB₁ was detected in 95.6% of the food samples, and 13.6% exceeded the 2.0 ppb threshold. We observed an increasing trend for aflatoxin exposure from highland to lowland (p < .001), but there was no difference between seasons (p = .743). The median (interquartile range) urinary AFM₁ was 214 (undetectable to 2,582) ppt, and AFM₁ was detectable in 53.3% of the samples. Urinary AFM₁ showed significant difference among agroecological zones (p < .001) but not between seasons (p = .275). A significant but weak correlation was observed between AFB₁ and urinary AFM₁ (r_s = 0.177, p = .001). We concluded that lactating women in Sidama, especially those in the lowland area, have unsafe exposure to aflatoxin.

Keywords: Aflatoxin B1; agroecology; food; lactating women; seasonality; urinary aflatoxin M1.