Occurrence, Distribution and Variations of Aflatoxins in Chicken Organs with Respect to Chicken Age

Aflatoxins, toxic secondary metabolites produced naturally by fungi, pose a serious threat to food safety by contaminating a wide range of agricultural crops and animal products. While previous studies have examined aflatoxin levels in poultry feed and selected tissues, this study presents a comprehensive and previously unexplored systematic analysis of aflatoxin distribution across multiple chicken organs (meat muscles, heart, liver, gizzard, and crop) in relation to chicken age and feed contamination. A total of 75 organ samples and 6 feed samples were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with florescence detector. The analysis revealed that 65.3% of organ samples were contaminated by total aflatoxins with concentrations varying differently across organs. Notably, the crop exhibited the highest aflatoxin levels (4.33-12.74 ng/g), followed by the liver (2.41-7.98 ng/g), gizzard (1.53-5.53 ng/g), heart (1.78-3.02 ng/g) and meat (0.95-2.64 ng/g). Importantly, while grower feed showed high contamination (98.08 ± 0.76 ng/g), all edible organ (meat muscles, heart, liver and gizzard) samples remained below regulatory limits (5 ng/g for AFB1 and 10 ng/g for total aflatoxins). The study offers critical insights into organ specific aflatoxin bioaccumulation patterns in chickens, an area that has been underexplored. The identification of high risk organs such as the crop and liver underscores potential food safety concerns. These findings are significant for public health risk assessment and highlight the need for targeted monitoring and regulatory actions to minimize dietary exposure to aflatoxins.