A broad-winged hawk used by an animal rehabilitation facility east of Lawrence to educate people about wildlife may have contracted West Nile virus.

Diane Johnson, director of Operation WildLife, said Thursday that the female hawk was ill and exhibiting symptoms of the virus now sweeping the nation. On Monday, staff noticed the hawk was lethargic and having difficulty breathing. It’s now resting comfortably in an incubator at the facility’s headquarters.

“There is a possibility that she could have West Nile,” Johnson said. “There is no cure. It just has to run its course.”

West Nile virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. It can infect people, horses and other animals. More than 110 species of birds are known to have been infected with West Nile virus, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The CDC said most birds, particularly crows and jays, infected with the virus survive.

Johnson said the ill hawk had been used for three years in Operation WildLife’s public education program, which reaches 250,000 people annually. That program generates one-third of the wildlife rehabilitation facility’s annual budget.

The organization’s education program could be jeopardized if mosquitoes infect its other birds, such as Operation WildLife’s eagles, owls and hawks.

“It’s scary for us, because we have to come up with thousands of dollars to protect the rest of the birds,” Johnson said. “We can encase the facility in mosquito netting.”

That would cost more than $10,000, she said. An alternative would be to install three $1,300 pieces of equipment that produce enough carbon dioxide to attract mosquitoes and pull them into a vat.

The problem, Johnson said, is that there’s no money in the organization’s budget for such intervention.

Operation WildLife is located on 18 acres of woodlands near the Kansas River between Lawrence and Linwood.

Johnson said the sick hawk had lived at the facility since arriving from a rehabilitation center in Iowa. The bird had been shot in the upper neck. A pellet severed her optic nerve, blinding the bird in the right eye.

Broad-winged hawks have a dark brown back and a light breast and belly.

According to the CDC, West Nile virus activity has been chronicled in 41 states, including Kansas, and the District of Columbia. As of Thursday, 555 human cases of West Nile virus, with 28 deaths, had been reported nationwide.

Most people who become infected with West Nile virus will have either no symptoms or only mild ones. On rare occasions, the virus can result in a severe and sometimes fatal inflammation of the brain. The risk of severe disease is higher for people 50 years of age and older.

There is no evidence to suggest the virus can be spread from person to person or from animal to person, according to the CDC.