With the CU football team debuting its new Ralphie mascot, and Utah bison tripping over the Colorado border , and the Colorado General Assembly making shooting the wooly beasts illegal , bison are having a moment.

But a researcher at Colorado State University who has been studying the animal for years figured out how to tinker with the reproductive material of a celebrity herd to bring a key piece of American history to Colorado. And the work has been so successful that brucellosis-free bison are being sent to other states to help strengthen the overall population of bison in America and to improve the health of prairie landscapes.

Jennifer Barfield is an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at CSU. She became interested in bison midw

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