Figure 2.

Concentrations of sIgA in mothers’ milk in northern Kenya along with published values from select populations. Kenyan values are shown in two bars: one for our sub-sample of VAD Ariaal mothers with young infants (<150 days), and the other for all of our participating mothers. The graph shows that, regardless of VA status, Ariaal mothers’ milk sIgA concentrations tended to occupy the lower range of reported values from several populations of differing levels/types of nutritional stress. Among the Ariaal, VAD mothers with young infants had significantly lower sIgA than the overall mean, but higher than the value reported from the Toba of northern Argentine. sIgA, secretory immunoglobulin A; VAD vitamin A deficiency