EGU2020-3883, updated on 04 Jan 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3883
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The Simulation of Drifting Dead Pigs in the Sea

Yong-Jun Lin1, Chih-Chung Wen2, Kai-Yuan Ke3, and Yih-Chi Tan4
Yong-Jun Lin et al.
  • 1Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (vovman@gmail.com)
  • 2Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Hungkuang University, Taichung, Taiwan (wen1558@hk.edu.tw)
  • 3Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (kent0115@gmail.com)
  • 4Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan (yctan@ntu.edu.tw )

In 2017, dead pigs infected with African swine fever were found on the beach of Tianpu, Kinmen, an offshore island of Taiwan. After the event, the Kinmen government carried out a thorough pig farm quarantine. However, none infected pig was found in any of the pig farms. This study aims to identify where the dead infected pig came from. Affected by ocean currents, marine drifts can often reach hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from their origins. During the winter, ocean currents across the north of the Taiwan Strait from west to east may transport the pigs from the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang, China, to the coast of north-central Taiwan. Another possible driven force is the near-shore current of western China. In order to analyze the possible drifting path of pigs, the hydrodynamic model and the particle tracking model were applied. Pigs were simulated as mass particles. The simulation domain includes sea area nearby Kinmen and China where pigs may originate. Considering the effect of the currents and wind from 2018/12/26 to 2019/1/3, three possible drift scenarios were set for analysis, including (S1): originated from Weitou Bay; (S2): originated from Jiulong River estuary; (S3) originated from the coast of Quanzhou. The results showed that the most possible scenario is S3.

How to cite: Lin, Y.-J., Wen, C.-C., Ke, K.-Y., and Tan, Y.-C.: The Simulation of Drifting Dead Pigs in the Sea, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-3883, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3883, 2020.