Aflatoxin exposure among lactating women in southern Ethiopia

In Ethiopia and many other low‐income countries, little is known about the exposure of lactating women to aflatoxin, which is a major health concern to the mother and her nursing infant. We determined the aflatoxin B(1) contamination of family foods (AFB(1)) and urinary aflatoxin M(1) (AFM(1)) of lactating women in Sidama, southern Ethiopia, and compared the levels across agroecological settings (lowland, midland, highland) and two seasons. We conducted two surveys (n = 360) that represented the dry and wet seasons of the locality. AFM(1) and AFB(1) were determined using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was made using Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis test. The median (interquartile range) AFB(1) was 0.94 (0.63–1.58) ppb. AFB(1) was detected in 95.6% of the food samples, and 13.6% exceeded the 2.0 ppb threshold. We observed an increasing trend for aflatoxin exposure from highland to lowland (p < .001), but there was no difference between seasons (p = .743). The median (interquartile range) urinary AFM(1) was 214 (undetectable to 2,582) ppt, and AFM(1) was detectable in 53.3% of the samples. Urinary AFM(1) showed significant difference among agroecological zones (p < .001) but not between seasons (p = .275). A significant but weak correlation was observed between AFB(1) and urinary AFM(1) (r(s) = 0.177, p = .001). We concluded that lactating women in Sidama, especially those in the lowland area, have unsafe exposure to aflatoxin.