The United States Patent Office issued patent US7,663,019 B2 on February 16, 2010 to Paul E. Mozdziak, James N. Petitte, and North Carolina State University. The Patent is titled "Transgenic Snakes and Methods of Making." The document suggests that transgenic ball pythons, corn snakes, and kingsnakes have been produced using a retrovirus as a vector to insert foreign DNA into the genome of snake embryos. The patent claims the transgenic snakes are useful for, "testing repellents, testing of toxicological compounds, as teaching aids, for venom production, etc." While the title suggests the patent is for snakes, the text implies that the patent covers methodology that may be applied to many reptiles. The complete document can be found at: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7663019.html. JCM