Exposure of rat offsprings to aflatoxin risks through suckling mothers dosed with aflatoxin B1

Abstract

One source of human exposure to aflatoxins is by ingestion of aflatoxins carried over from feeds into milk and milk products such as cheese and powdered milk, where they appear mainly as aflatoxin M. We carried out a study using rats to establish whether milk from lactating rat mothers dosed with aflatoxin B1 carried over potent aflatoxin metabolites capable of inducing liver cancer in their offsprings. The results of this study demonstrated that the presence of such metabolites of aflatoxin B1 in milk and milk products presents serious health hazards especially to children consuming milk from dairy cows feeding on aflatoxin B1 contaminated animal feeds. As much emphasis, therefore, should be placed on the control regulations on the presence of aflatoxin in animal feeds as is placed on its direct contamination of cereals and nuts.