Aflatoxin M₁ in breast-milk of UAE women

A study was undertaken to determine whether breast-milk of mothers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) contained aflatoxins. One hundred and forty lactating mothers, 55 who had delivered premature infants (<2500 g, ≤37 wk gestational age) and 85 who had full-term infants, agreed to participate in the study. Breast-milk was collected during regular feeding of infants in the special care baby unit and postnatal wards using an electric breast pump and ten ml of milk was siphoned off into a zinc-free plastic container for analysis. Aflatoxin M₁ concentration in the breast-milk samples was measured by HPLC. Samples were collected between January 1999 and December 2000. Approximately 66% of the mothers were expatriates and 34% were UAE nationals. Babies' weight, postnatal age, sex, birthweight and gestational age, and mothers' nationality, age and parity were recorded. Overall, 92% ofthe breast-milk samples contained aflatoxin M₁. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis failed to show significant correlation between aflatoxin M₁ and gestational age, postnatal age, gender, nationality and clinical condition. Levels of lactose, protein and lipids did not correlate significantly with levels of aflatoxin M₁. The public should be educated about storing food and the hazards of aflatoxin ingestion to reduce the unacceptably frequent presence of aflatoxin in breast-milk.