The Occurrence and Variations of Total Aflatoxins and Aflatoxin B1 in Different Types of Chicken Feeds Marketed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This paper reports on the occurrence and variation of total aflatoxins (TAF) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in different types of chicken feeds collected from various locations in Dar es Salaam. A total of 63 chicken feed samples based on cotton seed hulls, sunflower seed hulls, maize bran and mixed feeds were analysed using HPLC-FLD. It was revealed that all samples were contaminated with both TAF and AFB1, varying significantly with respect to their types. Specifically, 52.9% of the cotton seed hulls and 64.7% of maize bran samples exceeded the set tolerable limit of 5 ng g−1 for AFB1. All sunflower seed hull samples were contaminated, showing varying mean concentrations of TAF across the sites: Manzese (150.48 ng g−1), Mbagala (56.20 ng g−1), Bunju (49.08 ng g−1) and Kigamboni (33.83 ng g−1). Remarkably, all chicken feed samples from the poultry farms were contaminated with levels beyond the recommended international maximum tolerable limit of 20 ng g−1 of TAF for feeds with levels decreasing from Farm C (77.71 ng g−1), Farm A (48.19 ng g−1), Farm E (38.95 ng g−1) and Farm F (24.48 ng g−1). These findings call for urgent stringent quality control measures to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in chicken feeds, thereby safeguarding animal health and preventing potential health risks to humans. Keywords: Aflatoxins; High Performance Liquid Chromatography; Poultry feeds; Contamination; Mycotoxins