There are multiple diagnostic tools available for analysing DNA integrity in sperm, including the well- established sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA), as well as the single-cell gel electrophoresis (Comet) assay, and the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD-HALO) test. The first phase of this project will collect sperm from three sires to optimise the various assays for use with ram sperm. The sperm collected from the three sires will be assessed alongside a positive control with induced DNA damage to validate results. In the second phase optimised methods will then be tested across several sires to determine variation and to validate the capacity for DNA integrity assessment in an industry setting.