Assessment of aflatoxin exposure among young children in Ethiopia using urinary biomarkers

ABSTRACT

The direct measurement of biomarkers of exposure in biological fluids such as urine has become important for assessing aflatoxin exposure in humans as it is the only tool that integrates exposures from various routes. For this reason, a study was conducted to assess aflatoxin exposure among young children in Ethiopia using urinary biomarkers. A cross-sectional study was conducted in ten Woredas (Districts) from Amhara and Tigray regional states of Ethiopia including 200 children (aged 1–4 years). A total of 200 urine samples were collected from 200 children and assessed for the levels of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), aflatoxin B₂ (AFB₂), aflatoxin G₁ (AFG₁), aflatoxin G₂ (AFG₂) and aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁) using a validated LC-MS/MS method. Aflatoxins were detected in 34/200 (17%) of the urine samples whereby four out of five analysed aflatoxins were detected. AFM₁ was detected in 14/200 (7%) of the urine samples in a range of 0.06–0.07 ng/mL. AFB₂, AFG₂ and AFG₁ were detected in respectively 9/200 (4.5%), 6/200 (3%) and 5/200 (2.5%) of the urine samples whereas AFB₁ was not detected in any of the samples. In this study, there was no association between the different malnutrition categories (stunted, wasting and underweight) and aflatoxin exposure. However, the biomarker analysis showed a clear exposure of young children to aflatoxins. Therefore, awareness to the public is important to prevent potential health consequences of aflatoxins.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomarker
• urine
• aflatoxin
• children
• exposure assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly acknowledge mothers/caregivers of the young children in all regions for giving their time, responding the food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) and assisting during sample collection. The authors’ special gratitude also goes to health extension workers (HEWs) in all regions for their technical support during the sample collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Micronutrient Initiative (MI) Ethiopia [Grant number 1314-ADD UNI-35] are acknowledged for financing the first author’s doctoral studies.