Exposure Assessments of Internally Displaced Infants to Aflatoxin M1 through Breast Milk Feeding, in Damaturu Yobe State

Aflatoxin M1 is a biomarker for the detection of breast milk contamination and also a risk factor for early infant’s exposure to the toxin. Exposure assessment of 50 internally displaced infants to aflatoxin M1 through breast-milk feeding was carried out between (June 2016 to October 2016), High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to evaluate the level of AFM1 in mother’s breast milk samples and the infant’s urine samples respectively. Results obtained from the study showed that 96% of the breast milk samples have maximum concentration of 0.0879µg/L with mean value of 0.0582µg/L while, the minimum and maximum excretion concentration of AFM1 in urine sample of infants was 0.0400µg/L and 0.0651µg/L respectively with mean value of 0.05005µg/L at 88%.

The study indicates that the occurrence of AFM1 in breast milk samples of mothers with the types of food they consumed within 24- 48hrs prior to sample collection that predispose the infant’s exposure to AFM1 showed 40% of the women consumed rice and 32% consumed local food (brabisko/biski) and 24% consumed corn meal with statistically significant with P value less than 0.05. From the study the 96% of the infants were exposed to the toxin while 18% of the infants were undetectable, the concentration of AFM1 in all the breast milk samples were found to be higher than the acceptable tolerance level of 0.025µg/L and 0.05µg/L for infants milk by the European Communities and Codex Alimentarius respectively. This possess a concern that internally displaced infants that were on admission in the selected facility where exposed to AFM1.