https://journalafsj.com/index.php/AFSJ <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Asian Food Science Journal (ISSN: <a href="https://nsl.niscpr.res.in/ISSNPROCESS/issnassignedinfo.jsp">2581-7752</a>)</strong> aims to publish high quality papers (<a href="https://journalafsj.com/index.php/AFSJ/general-guideline-for-authors">Click here for Types of paper</a>) on all aspects of Food research. By not excluding papers based on novelty, this journal facilitates the research and wishes to publish papers as long as they are technically correct and scientifically motivated. The journal also encourages the submission of useful reports of negative results. This is a quality controlled, OPEN peer-reviewed, open-access INTERNATIONAL journal.<br /><br />This is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.</p> SCIENCEDOMAIN international en-US Asian Food Science Journal 2581-7752 https://journalafsj.com/index.php/AFSJ/article/view/931 <p><strong>Aims:</strong> To assess co-exposure to deoxynivalenol (DON) and T-2 toxin through cottonseed cake in Malian sheep and cattle, characterise potential health risks, and evaluate sensitivity to unmeasured HT-2.</p> <p><strong>Study Design:</strong> Cross-sectional contamination study with deterministic and probabilistic screening-level risk assessment.</p> <p><strong>Place and Duration of Study:</strong> Mali’s post-harvest cotton value chain; the sampling period was not specified.</p> <p><strong>Methodology:</strong> The database included 243 determinations from triplicate analyses of 81 independent samples. Replicates were averaged, and 33 cottonseed-cake samples informed the primary assessment. Exposure scenarios comprised four observed sheep rations and cattle cake intakes of 1, 2 and 4 kg/day. Risk quotients (RQ) were calculated against species-specific reference values. Monte Carlo simulations used 100,000 iterations per scenario, preserving paired toxin concentrations. T-2-only quotients provided lower-bound estimates against combined T-2 + HT-2 reference points. Sensitivity analysis assumed HT-2 equalled T-2.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> Mean DON and T-2 concentrations were 274.98 and 136.36 µg/kg, respectively (Spearman’s ρ = 0.912). Sheep deterministic T-2 RQ values ranged from 5.14 to 15.12; the simulated mean was 9.393 (2.5th–97.5th percentiles: 5.278–13.901), with 100% exceeding 1. Mean cattle T-2 RQ values were 0.146, 0.293 and 0.586 at 1, 2 and 4 kg/day, respectively, without simulated exceedances. Under the illustrative HT-2 = T-2 assumption, exceedance probability reached 66.5% at 4 kg/day. DON RQ values remained below 1 throughout.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> T-2 exposure indicated potential concern in sheep. Cattle estimates remained below the reference point for measured T-2 alone, but high-intake estimates were sensitive to unmeasured HT-2. Joint T-2 and HT-2 quantification in complete rations is needed before definitive safety conclusions.</p> Mamadou Kanadjigui Hamssatou Aliou Maïga Awa Soronfé Doumbia Zoumana Traore Kangaye Amadou Diallo Amadou Hamadoun Babana Copyright (c) 2026 Author(s). The licensee is the journal publisher. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2026-11-03 2026-11-03 25 11 1 8 10.9734/afsj/2026/v25i11931