Vaccine one of the vaccine components is more robust than the others and suppresses the growth and immune response to the other components. This phenomenon was first noted in the trivalent Sabin polio vaccine, where the amount of serotype 2 virus in the vaccine had to be reduced to stop it from interfering with the "take" of the serotype 1 and 3 viruses in the vaccine. This phenomenon has also been found to be a problem with the dengue vaccines currently being researched, where the DEN-3 serotype was found to predominate and suppress the response to DEN-1, −2 and −4 serotypes.
David Bruce (microbiologist) discouraged the experiments being carried by Zammit, and doubted his ability as a microbiologist. Eventually, when he learned of the positive results linking the fever with unpasteurized goat milk, Bruce tried to discredit the role of Zammit and take credit to himself. To a certain extent he succeeded, as it was renamed after him as brucellosis, however information about the role of Zammit has eventually surfaced. When he was transferred to South Africa, Bruce was sent to Zululand in 1894 to investigate the outbreak of cattle disease which the native called "nagana". In 1903, he identified the causative protozoan, and