Assessment of aflatoxin contamination in raw milk and feed in Macedonia during 2013

This work presents the first insight on the aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) occurrence in raw milk collected from Macedonia, during the mycotoxin incidence in 2013. The total tested samples number was 3635, collected from February 2013 to January 2014. They were analyzed for AFM1 with ELISA as screening, and HPLC - fluorescence detection as confirmatory method. The AFM1 concentrations exceeded the maximum permitted levels in 2.9% of the samples, and the highest detected concentration was 408.1 ng/kg. The follow-up actions including feed sampling revealed aflatoxin B1 contamination in 31.8% of the samples tested, applying the HPLC-FD method. We estimated the carry-over rate between 0.22 and 3.47%. The experience obtained from the coordinated milk-feed aflatoxin survey could contribute towards increasing awareness for establishing continuous monitoring systems.