Assessment of aflatoxin <scp>B₁</scp> in animal feed and aflatoxin <scp>M₁</scp> in raw milk samples of different species of milking animals from Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Abstract The research was designed to investigate the amount of aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) in animal feed (corn, wheat bran, peanut cake, soybean meal, and cotton seed meal) and aflatoxin M 1 (AFM 1 ) in raw milk of animals (cow milk, buffalo milk, goat milk and sheep milk), from Punjab, Pakistan collected March 2017 till February 2018. The samples were examined with liquid chromatography, with a fluorescence detector. The findings demonstrated that 126 (65.3%) out of 193 samples of animal feed were found positive with AFB 1 , and 88 (45.6%) samples have levels higher than 5 μg/kg; positive samples are those whose levels of AFM 1 ≥ LOD. The highest average amount of AFB 1 was found in mustard oil cake meal (25.0 ± 4.5 μg/kg). Out of 278 samples of milk, 134 (48.2%) were found positive with AFM 1 , and 48 (17.3%) samples have levels of AFM 1 higher than the European Union legal limit (i.e., 50 ng/L). The highest mean level of 70.5 ± 10.5 ng/L was found in raw milk of buffalo. The levels of AFM 1 in milk from the urban region versus suburb region showed a significant difference (at α 0.05) except sheep milk samples, which presented a significant difference at α 0.01. Samples, 65 (64.4%) out of 140 from the urban region, and 69 (50%) from the suburb region were found positive with AFM 1 in milk samples. The amount of AFB 1 in animal feed and AFM 1 in milk samples are comparatively high and could pose health hazards for local consumers.