His Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Chancellor of UAE University, that the first National University is enlightened in its scientific productions and research contributions by the of wise leadership’s directives under the chairmanship of his Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Head of the State, the visions of his Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, towards entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and with the support and attention of his highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, for everything that contributes positively to the creation of an innovative environment in the community.
This came during his Excellency’s reception of the inventing research team members from the College of Food and Agriculture in his office on Wednesday 19/11/2014, in the presence of his Excellency Dr. Ali Rashid Al Noaimi, Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. Mohammad AlBieli, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Scientific Affairs, Dr. Ghaleb Al Hadrami, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Scientific Research and Graduate Studies at the University, Dr. Aisha Abushelaibi, Acting Dean of the College of Food and Agriculture, Professor Ahmed Hussein, principal researcher, and UAE doctoral student Salem Rashed Alalili from the research team.
His Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak congratulated the research team upon being granted the patent from the European Patent Office for developing a new antibiotic derived from date pits degraded by fungi, to treat microbial bacteria in animals, he commended their efforts in developing and producing the antibiotic which aims to treat pathogenic bacteria in animals like the Salmonella spp, Campylobacter spp, Shigella spp and Escherichia coli which causes diarrhea in chickens and can be transmitted to humans.
For his part, Dr. Ali Rashid Al Noaimi, University Vice Chancellor, stressed the University’s interest in scientific research, which in turn contributes to the achievement of leadership and excellence in higher education and scientific research, which is reflected in the unique innovations and inventions that the University contributes to in areas of national, regional and global importance to, he also mentioned that this comes through the follow-up and attention of his Excellency Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, University Chancellor, to support and promote scientific research and researchers, and providing all their requirements, he also thanked the research team, comprised of Professor Ahmed Hussein, principal researcher, Dr. Ibrahim Belal, College of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Khaled El Tarabily, College of Science, and UAE doctoral student Salem Rashed Alalili.
Dr. Ghaleb Al Hadrami, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, said that Professor Hussein and his team have been working for the last three years to develop this new technology of utilizing date pits with a specific fungi to produce feed for poultry with no side effects, which can be used as a replacement of synthetic chemical antibiotics, noting that the Office for the protection of patents and marketing of technology at UAE University registered the invention in the patent offices in both the United States, the UAE, Hong Kong, in addition to the European Union.
Professor Ahmad Hussein explained that the date palm fruit is an important native crop to the Gulf States, especially to the UAE, during the past 40 years. The UAE has increased its production of palm trees, and currently ranks fourth among world date producing countries; the date production is about 900,000 metric tons/year.
He added that it is well known that date pits comprise 13-15% of the total weight of the ripe date, depending on the variety and grade quality. Date pit production could reach nearly 70,000 tons/year. Now a days, date pits are being discarded, or used as animal feed.
Current field and industry practice supplementing animal feed for livestock, poultry and fish with synthetic antibiotics to improve the growth performance and feed efficiency, and to protect animals from adverse effects of pathogenic and non-pathogenic enteric microorganisms and others, these synthetic antibiotics cost the global animal industry billions of dollars per year, so the new product, degraded date pits, may become valuable, and will be a new source of income for the producers of dates and farmers, and is helpful in resisting bacteria and helps in manufacturing important organic animal products.
