The National Human BSE vCJD Memorial, North Wing, Lambeth Palace Rd, London, England, UK, SE1 3FT

In late 1994, a number of people began to show symptoms of a neurological disease similar to CJD, a fatal disorder that occurs naturally in a small percentage of people, though usually only later in life. This new form of the disease would go on to be identified as variant CJD (vCJD), occurring primarily in younger people and caused through eating BSE-infected meat. The first known death from vCJD occurred on 21 May 1995, when the 19-year old Stephen Churchill died although the UK government continued to emphasise the safety of British beef and, in September 1995, concluded that there was 'insufficient evidence' to link BSE and vCJD. It was not until 20 March 1996 that Stephen Dorrell, the Secretary of State for Health announced that vCJD was caused by eating BSE-infected meat. 177 people (as of June 2014) would go on to contract and die of the disease. Regulations and bans of British beef When BSE was identified, the United States banned the importation of British cattle in 1989, and 499 cows who had been recently imported from the United Kingdom were killed. The United States slaughtered an additional 116 British cows in 1996. Between December 1997 and November 1999, the British government banned the sale of beef on the bone. A week after Dorrell's announcement, on 27 March 1996, the European Union (EU) imposed a worldwide ban on exports of British beef. The ban would go on to last for 10 years before it was finally lifted on 1 May 2006, although restrictions remained on British beef containing vertebral material and beef sold on the bone. The ban, which led to much controversy in Parliament and to the incineration of over one million cattle from at least March 1996, resulted in trade controversies between the UK and other EU states, dubbed a "Beef War" by media. France continued to impose a ban on British beef illegally long after the European Court of Justice had ordered it to lift its blockade, although it has never paid any fine for doing so.