Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin produced by a variety of fungi, such as Penicillium verrucosum and
Aspergillium spp., which has been found to have a wide number of potentially deadly toxic effects, and
can enter the human organism through a variety of means. It then finds its way into the bloodstream and,
after a lengthy process, is eventually excreted through the urine. It can thus be detected in its original form
not only in blood samples but also in this biological medium. As such, and in an attempt to evaluate the
exposure of the Portuguese population to this mycotoxin, morning urine samples were collected during the
Winter of 2007, from each of five geographically distinct Portuguese locations — Bragança, Porto, Coimbra,
Alentejo, and Algarve — and subjected to extraction by immunoaffinity columns and to OTA quantification
through liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection. Prevalent incidence was higher than
95% with Coimbra being the exception (incidence of 73.3%). In nearly all locations, the OTA content of most
samples was found to be above the limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.008 ng/ml. Indeed, excluding Coimbra,
with an OTA content level of 0.014 ng/ml, all regions featured content values over 0.021 ng/ml.
