Thesis (MTech. Degree in Animal Sciences) Tshwane University of Technology 2012. / Poor pork quality as a result of pre-slaughter stress is widespread in the industry and this is of great concern. Although many methods for assessing stress levels, and consequently welfare, exist, these tend to be invasive. Simple, effective, non-invasive and/or minimally invasive ways of assessing the welfare of the pigs before slaughter are critical to identify the stressed pigs enabling specific interventions to mitigate the effects of the stress on the pork. The main objective of the study was therefore, to measure the levels of metabolic substrate in pig saliva and plasma subjected to stressful conditions using rapid diagnostic tests and relate them to meat pH, drip loss and carcass temperature of the meat. It was envisaged that such a relationship if established would enable the identification of stressed pigs likely to produce poor quality pork and enable prophylactic measures to be taken before slaughter to come up with good quality pork.