The invention concerns a method and assay for qualifying equine laminitis disease status in a subject by measuring specific biomarkers, comparing the level of said biomarker to a control level； and correlating the measurement with laminitis disease status, wherein a statistically relevant elevated level of said biomarker is present in said sample relative to said control level.The invention further relates to immuno-based methods and assays for detecting toxins relevant to laminitis and to the use of antibodies for assay and diagnostic purposes.
