 In 1996 European governments banned British beef over claims that it was infected with mad cow disease – the British government withheld co-operation with the EU over the issue, but did not succeed in getting the ban lifted, only a timetable of lifting it.The conflict has been named the Beef war.By April 2013, vCJD – the human form of the disease – had killed 280 people (176 of them in Britain).