Abstract
BackgroundAflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hydroxylated metabolite formed after aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is consumed by humans and animals; it can be detected in urine, milk and blood. It is well recognized that AFB1 is toxic to humans and other animals. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies aflatoxins as group 1 carcinogens and AFM1 as group 2B carcinogen. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the exposure of pigs to aflatoxins as well as to assess the public awareness of aflatoxins among people in five provinces in Vietnam.ResultsA total of 1920 urine samples were collected from slaughterhouses located in five provinces. Overall, the positive rate of AFM1 was 53.90% (95% confidence interval 51.64–56.15) using a cut-off of 0.15 μg/kg (range: limit of detection to 13.66 μg/kg, median: 0.2 μg/kg and mean: 0.63 μg/kg). A total of 252 people from the general population were interviewed from 5 provinces, and overall 67.86% reported being aware of aflatoxins. We also found that men and more highly educated had significantly increased awareness of aflatoxins compared to the females and primary/secondary school group. The respective odds ratios (ORs) were as follows: “male” group (OR: 2.64), “high school educated” group (OR: 3.40) and “college/university or more educated” group (OR: 10.20).ConclusionsWe can conclude that pigs in Vietnam are exposed to aflatoxins to varying degrees, and there may be a risk that pork products could contain AFM1. Further investigation is needed into the possible health impacts as well as to aid in establishing regulations for animal feed to reduce the health impacts in humans and animals.
Highlights
Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hydroxylated metabolite formed after aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is consumed by humans and animals; it can be detected in urine, milk and blood
From collected demographic information, we found that female pigs were significantly more likely to have AFM1 (OR: 1.45, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08–1.96) in their urine as opposed to male pigs
“indigenous breed” pigs (OR: 12.40, 95% CI: 5.15–29.82) pigs were significantly more likely to have AFM1 in their urine compared to “exotic breed” pigs (Table 3)
Summary
Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hydroxylated metabolite formed after aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is consumed by humans and animals; it can be detected in urine, milk and blood. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies aflatoxins as group 1 carcinogens and AFM1 as group 2B carcinogen. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the exposure of pigs to aflatoxins as well as to assess the public awareness of aflatoxins among people in five provinces in Vietnam. Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hydroxylated metabolite of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) produced in humans and other animals that consume contaminated food, and can be detected in urine, milk and blood [7,8,9,10]. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies aflatoxins as group 1 carcinogens. Other studies reported AFB1 in rice, cassava and maize [4, 28, 30]
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