A traveling mummy exhibit could pose a health hazard to visitors due to fungal growth, Mexican experts say.

Mexican government experts said on Thursday they were concerned that traveling exhibition of mummies since the 1800s may pose a risk to public health.

The surviving corpses were inadvertently mummified while buried in crypts in dry, mineral-rich soil in the state of Guanajuato. Some still have hair, leather skin, and their original clothing.

But a statement from the National Institute of Anthropology and History says that fungal growths were also found on one of the mummies.

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The federal institution has distanced itself from the state government’s decision to display half a dozen mummies in glass cases at the New York City Travel Fair. mexico city. It was unclear if the boxes were airtight, and the institute said it was not consulted about the display.

“Even more disturbing is that they are still on display without protecting the public from biohazards,” the institute said.

Experts have found a fungal growth on a mummy used for a Mexican exhibit.  Experts said they were concerned that the traveling exhibition could pose a health risk to the public.

Experts have found a fungal growth on a mummy used for a Mexican exhibit. Experts said they were concerned that the traveling exhibition could pose a health risk to the public.

“According to some published photographs, at least one of the exposed corpses, which was examined by the institute in November 2021, shows signs of the growth of possible colonies of the fungus,” the institute wrote.

“All of these should be carefully examined to see if they are signs of a risk to cultural heritage, as well as to those who handle and come to see them.”

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Mummies are usually exhibited in the state capital of Guanajuato. But they have traveled before, and some were exhibited in the US in 2009.

They have been preserved naturally, some say due to climate, mineral rich environment, another due to sealed crypts, although no one knows for sure. They were dug up starting in the 1860s because their families could no longer pay for burials and put on display.