Zinc in breast milk during prolonged lactation: comparison between the UK and the Gambia

A total of 580 breast milk samples were collected from 56 lactating women living in a rural village community in The Gambia, West Africa, and 92 samples were obtained from 57 lactating women living in Cambridge, England. Total zinc content of each sample was measured by atomic absorption spectrometry, and pooled samples of the Gambian breast milks, representing successive periods of lactation, were fractionated into fat, whey and insoluble casein fractions, to examine zinc distribution. The two sets of milks both exhibited a dramatic decline in total zinc concentrations with increasing duration of lactation, in common with previous studies. However, the UK milks unexpectedly had lower zinc contents at all stages than the Gambian milks. Milk zinc levels were not significantly related to either maternal age or parity in the Gambian women. The proportion of zinc found in the sedimentable fraction remained nearly constant with increasing duration of lactation, but the proportion found in the fat fraction increased and the proportion in the whey fraction declined. These observations are potentially relevant for estimations of milk zinc availability and the fulfillment of zinc requirements by infants, and hence for infant feeding practices.