Aflatoxin M1 Contamination of Milk and Its Products in Bomet County, Kenya

Abstract

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a major carcinogenic compound that may be found in milk and dairy products resulting from ingestion of aflatoxin B1 by dairy animals. The study aimed at determining the level of aflatoxin M1 in milk and milk products from Bomet County. A total of 185 samples (150 raw milk and 35 processed milk and milk products) were randomly collected from milk collection sites and randomly selected milk kiosks respectively. The AFM1 was analyzed using a commercial ELISA kit (Ridascreen, aflatoxin M1 R-Biopharm, Product code, R5812, Darmstadt, Germany). Out of 185 samples investigated, 156 samples were positive for AFM1, an overall contamination rate of 84.32%. The samples with levels higher than the tolerance limit of 0.05 μg/l recommended by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) limits were 43.8% mainly contributed by the raw milk compared to processed milk (52.0% versus 8.6%). Processed milk had insignificant level of contamination with aflatoxin M1 (Median 0.00 (IQR: 0.00, 0.00 μg/l) with a minimum of 0.00 μg/l and a maximum of 0.69 μg/l. Raw milk showed significant contamination, median 0.09 (IQR: 0.00, 0.50) μg/l with a minimum of 0.00 μg/l and a maximum of 2.93 μg/l. Although there was no significant differences in AFM1 levels with study sites (P = 0.217); the median levels of aflatoxin M1 was high in sites 1, 3, and 7. The sites that had median aflatoxin M1 levels below the WHO/FAO acceptable limits of 0.05 μg/l were sites 2, 4 and 6. Due to high incidence of AFM1 contamination of milk and milk samples in Bomet County, there is need for regular monitoring and regulation of AFM1 contamination in milk and its products in the County. G. Langat et al.

Prevalence and mitigation of aflatoxins in Kenya (1960-to date)

“…High aflatoxin M 1 levels have been found in milk from various urban and peri-urban areas of Kenya including in pasteurised and ultra-heat-treated milk. Langat et al ( 2016 ) found that almost half (43.8%) of all samples and mainly unprocessed milk had levels above 0.05 μg/kg aflatoxin M 1 in milk, while Kang’ethe and Lang’a ( 2009 ) established that at least one in every five milk samples from urban dairy farmers and market outlets exceeded this level of 0.05 μg/kg aflatoxin M 1 content. Summary data ( Table 1 ) not only reveals high levels of aflatoxin M 1 in milk that is traded informally (Kirino et al., 2016 ), but also shows varied contamination in milk produced by livestock from various agro-ecologies (Senerwa et al, 2016 ).…”

Making milk quality assurance work on an unlevel playing field : Lessons from the Happy Cow pilot

“…More recently, other studies have also pointed to other safety concerns including high bacterial load, prevalence of antibiotic residue, unsafe aflatoxin content and unacceptable somatic cell count. Low levels of compliance affect both raw and pasteurized milk, including in the emerging retail innovations of milk ATMs (Bebe et al 2018;Kosgey et al 2018;Kashongwe et al 2017;Langat et al 2016;Ndungu et al 2016aNdungu et al , 2016b.…”

Sustainable growth of the Kenyan dairy sector : a quick scan of robustness, reliability and resilience

“…Yet, bacterial loads above KeBS standards (<30,000 cfu/ml for total bacteria counts) have been reported for both raw and processed milk . Langat et al (2016) found that aflatoxin-content of processed milk was lower than in raw milk, which was attributed to the heat treatment that milk undergoes in the factory (more on this below). Antibiotic drug residues are found in equal amounts in raw and processed milk samples (6% at market level and 9% at consumer level for raw milk samples and 8% for processed milk samples), as heat treatment does not affect drug residue levels ).…”