www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org THE DETERMINATION OF AFM1 AND AFM2 IN THE CRUDE MILK BY HPLC IN THE PROVINCE OF DIYALA MAYS, J. KHAMEES 1 , AMER K. ALAZAWY 1 & LUMA T. AHMED 2 1 Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Diyala, Diyala, Iraq 2 Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Diyala, Diyala, Iraq ABSTRACT The residues of aflatoxin M1 and aflatoxin M2 may be present in the curde milk and milk products, which may cause health problems for the consumer, Crude milk collected from dairy farms in the Diyala Province, were isolated and examined for aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) and aflatoxin M2 (AFM2). In this study 100 samples of milk were collected during the period between September to December 2017, the results revealed the presence of 12 isolate of fungal spp. And they are (Aspergillus flavus (17%), A. Terrace (7%), A. niger( 48%), A. fumigates(6%), A. ochraceus (4%), Penicillum spp. ( 10%), Candidia spp.(31%), Rhodotorule spp.(23%), Fuserum(2%), Cladosporium (2%), Risobes spp. (4%) and Geotricum candidium (2%)). Aflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by Aspergillus flavus , This study also revealed the analysis of 15samples by HPLC to detect the concentration of AFM1 and AFM2 in milk samples which produced positive results of Aspergillus flavus where the results show the concentration of AFM1 vary from (0.26-0.00076) and for AFM2 vary from (0.1-0.00009) in the samples of the Crude milk. KEYWORDS: Aflatoxin, AFM1, AFM2 & HPLC Received: Jul 12, 2018; Accepted: Aug 02, 2018; Published: Aug 24, 2018; Paper Id.: IJMPSOCT20181 INTRODUCTION Mycotoxins have a multiplicity of adverse impact on the both humans and animals when ingested (Hampikyan et al., 2010). Aflatoxins are the toxic by-products produced mainly by two filamentous fungi; Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus (Baskaya et al., 2006). Other aflatoxin producing species include Aspergillus nomius, A. pseudotamarii, A. bombycis, A. toxicarius, A. parvisclerotigenus, A. ochraceoroseus, A. rambelliior the ascomycete genus Emericella by Emericellaastellata and E. venezuelensis (Ito et al., 2001;Frisvad et al., 2004; Frisvad et al., 2005; Reiter et al., 2009). Aflatoxins are polycyclic structures belonging to the furanocoumar in class of compounds, which are hepatotoxic, carcinogenic, and immunosuppressive fungal metabolites (Williams and others 2004) mainly produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus (Prandini and others 2009). The most frequent aflatoxins are B1, B2, G1 and G2. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the most common toxic and has been reported as the most powerful natural carcinogen in the humans and animals (Hussain2008, Torkar & Vengust 2008). Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) as a metabolite of AFB1 is created in the body of human and some mammalian animals. AFB1 is produced by some molds, including Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and rarely A. nomius occurring in some foodstuffs such as cereals, dried fruits, grains, nuts, milk, etc. (Atasever et al., 2014; Iqbal et al., 2015; Mason et al., 2015). Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) or milk toxin is a hydroxylated metabolite of aflatoxin B1 and is secreted in the milk of dairy cattle after the consumption of feed Original Article International Journal of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science (IJMPS) ISSN (P): 2250-0049; ISSN (E): 2321-0095 Vol. 8, Issue 5, Oct 2018, 1-6 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.