Quantitative assessment of the nociceptive withdrawal reflex 1 in healthy, non-medicated experimental sheep 2 Helene Rohrbach a, b , Ronald Wieling c , Stephan Zeiter d , Ole K. Andersen e & Claudia 3 Spadavecchia a 4 5 a Anaesthesiology Section, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 6 b Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland 7 c Icotec, St. Gallen, Switzerland 8 d AO Research Institute, Davos, Switzerland 9 e Integrative Neuroscience group, Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction, Aalborg University, 10 Aalborg, Denmark 11 12 Correspondence: H. Rohrbach, Anaesthesiology Section, Department of Veterinary Sciences, 13 Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Berne, Laenggassstrasse 124, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. 14 E-mail: helene.rohrbach@vetsuisse.unibe.ch 15 Fax: +41 31 631 22 26, 16 Phone: +41 31 631 23 15 17 18 Running title: Nociceptive withdrawal reflex in conscious sheep 19 Abstract 20 This study aimed to characterize the nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR) and to define the 21 nociceptive threshold in 25 healthy, non-medicated experimental sheep in standing posture. 22 Electrical stimulation of the dorsal lateral digital nerves of the right thoracic and the pelvic limb 23 was performed and surface-electromyography (EMG) from the deltoid (all animals) and the 24 source: https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.46818 | downloaded: 7.6.2020