Democratic lawmakers erupted at the Trump administration and Republican colleagues this week, blaming them for the recent spread of the New World screwworm, causing alarm for the cattle industry.

“It appears that stopping a flesh eating parasite from spreading across the continent was, in fact, NOT waste, fraud, and abuse,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) wrote Tuesday on X.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed this month that the New World screwworm fly, a parasite with flesh-eating larvae that burrow into the living tissue of mammals, including cattle, has reached South Texas for the first time in decades. Now, both sides of the political aisle are blaming each other for the return.

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk, gutted a program to prevent the spread of the parasite across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a report from Agri-Pulse published in March last year.

A number of Democratic lawmakers took to social media to argue that Republicans could have done more to prevent this.

“The DOGE stupidity from Trump and Rollins will end up COSTING taxpayers money,” Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) said, linking to the Agri-Pulse report.

“This screwworm epidemic may have been avoided if DOGE folks actually communicated with our ranchers,” Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) told followers.

“Instead, a team of wholly unqualified interns recklessly cut the screwworm prevention program. Now ranchers will suffer and beef prices will continue to rise,” Soto continued.

“The Trump administration screwed up on screwworms and all they do is lie and blame the last guy,” Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez wrote in a social media post.

“Let’s be clear about what happened: DOGE cut the programs and staff that tracked dangerous outbreaks like screwworm,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) wrote. “So this has nothing to do with Joe Biden, but Trump and DOGE definitely screwed our cattle industry.”

However, Republicans are claiming that Biden-era border policies are what’s actually behind the return of the flesh-eating parasite.

President Donald Trump-loyalist Laura Loomer wrote on X, “There have not been enough deportations. That’s how Screw Worm got here.”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told Newsmax, “This is another thing we can thank Joe Biden for,” also citing migrants coming from South America.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins also attempted to shift blame to the Biden administration, claiming that “not much had been done” to counter the northward spread of the parasite.