[Longitudinal study of Cyclopidae, intermediary hosts of the Guinea worm in the Sudano-Sahelian area (Burkina Faso)].

During 18 months covering two annual rainy seasons, 338 monthly water samples were taken in 29 ponds of two dracunculosis endemic villages of south-western Burkina Faso. The dynamics of ponds inhabited by Cyclopidae has been surveyed as far as their densities and their species are concerned. We identified a total number of 17 species from 6 genera of which the decreasing order in frequency is: Thermocyclops, Mesocyclops, Metacyclops, Cryptocyclops, Microcyclops and Allocyclops. The dominant species are: Thermocyclops crassus consimilis, Metacyclops margaretae, Thermocyclops oblongatus and Thermocyclops neglectus decipiens. The crowds of these major species during the period of dracunculosis high transmission in the surveyed area (June to July), suggest, in the absence of a search for Dracunculus medinensis larvae, that, they should play the principal part as vector of the parasite in this area.