Quantitative assessment of the nociceptive withdrawal reflex in healthy, non-medicated experimental sheep

Rohrbach, Helene; Zeiter, Stephan; Andersen, Ole K.; Wieling, Ronald; Spadavecchia, Claudia (2014). Quantitative assessment of the nociceptive withdrawal reflex in healthy, non-medicated experimental sheep. Physiology & behavior, 129, pp. 181-185. Elsevier 10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.02.017

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This study aimed to characterize the nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR) and to define the nociceptive threshold in 25 healthy, non-medicated experimental sheep in standing posture. Electrical stimulation of the dorsal lateral digital nerves of the right thoracic and the pelvic limb was performed and surface-electromyography (EMG) from the deltoid (all animals) and the femoral biceps (18 animals) or the peroneus tertius muscles (7 animals) was recorded. The behavioural reaction following each stimulation was scored on a scale from 0 (no reaction) to 5 (strong whole body reaction). A train-of-five 1 ms constant-current pulse was used and current intensity was stepwise increased until NWR threshold intensity was reached. The NWR threshold intensity (It) was defined as the minimal stimulus intensity able to evoke a reflex with a minimal Root-Mean-Square amplitude (RMSA) of 20 μV, a minimal duration of 10 ms and a minimal reaction score of 1 (slight muscle contraction of the stimulated limb) within the time window of 20 to 130 ms post-stimulation. Based on this value, further stimulations were performed below (0.9It) and above threshold (1.5It and 2It). The stimulus-response curve was described. Data are reported as medians and interquartile ranges.

At the deltoid muscle It was 4.4 mA (2.9–5.7) with an RMSA of 62 μV (30–102). At the biceps femoris muscle It was 7.0 mA (4.0–10.0) with an RMSA of 43 μV (34–50) and at the peroneus tertius muscle It was 3.4 mA (3.1–4.4) with an RMSA of 38 μV (32–46). Above threshold, RMSA was significantly increased at all muscles. Below threshold, RMSA was only significantly smaller than at It for the peroneus tertius muscle but not for the other muscles.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > NeuroCenter
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV)
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) > DKV - Anaesthesiology

Graduate School:

Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB)

UniBE Contributor:

Rohrbach, Helene, Spadavecchia, Claudia

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0031-9384

Publisher:

Elsevier

Funders:

[8] 3R Research Foundation Switzerland

Language:

English

Submitter:

Helene Rohrbach Rüegsegger

Date Deposited:

22 Sep 2014 15:30

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:31

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.02.017

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Nociceptive withdrawal reflex, Sheep, Electromyogram, Stimulus-response curve

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.46818

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/46818

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