Find Rural Health Programs and Resources
The USDA has many programs and resources that can support rural communities improve their health and quality of life, but many programs do not have “health” in the title or description. To help rural community leaders and others to identify which USDA programs and resources can help improve a rural community’s health, a USDA Rural Health Inventory tool has been developed.
This tool is a curated library of active USDA’s programs and resources that support rural health. You can use the filters at the top to simplify your search in finding the programs and resources available by Sub-Agency, Program Type, or Assistance Type. Select the Rurality Requirement box to show programs and resources eligible for rural communities only.
Rural health programs are the emphasis, but this library is inclusive of all health programs.
This program provides funding for clean and reliable drinking water systems, sanitary sewage disposal, sanitary solid waste disposal, and storm water drainage to households and businesses in eligible rural areas.
This program provides low-income communities, which face significant health risks, access to safe, reliable drinking water and waste disposal facilities and services.
This program reduces or eliminates pollution of water resources by providing funding for organizations that provide technical assistance or training to improve the planning and management of solid waste sites.
This program helps qualified nonprofits create revolving loan funds that can provide financing to extend and improve water and waste disposal systems in rural areas.
This program helps qualified nonprofits and tribes create a revolving loan fund to increase access to clean, reliable water and septic systems for households in eligible rural areas.
One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
Animal health surveillance is designed to detect threats to animal health in a timely manner. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services (VS) works with a vast network of partners to carry out surveillance activities in the United States. Together, these partners work to protect animal health, national economic viability, and the food supply. In addition, these surveillance programs and efforts assure international trading partners of the health of the Nation’s herd and safety of our livestock and livestock products. Our national surveillance system also provides the tools necessary to detect chemical or environmental agents that could affect animal health.
Surveillance helps rapidly detect foreign diseases and emerging issues, monitor and prove actionable information for endemic diseases, and measure regional prevalence of trade-significant diseases.
Veterinary Services protects and improves the health, quality, and marketability of our nation's animals, animal products and veterinary biologics by preventing, controlling and/or eliminating animal diseases, and monitoring and promoting animal health and productivity.
APHIS laboratory services are provided by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa and Orient Point (Plum Island), New York. The NVSL provides a wide variety of information and services, centered around diagnosis of domestic and foreign animal diseases, support of disease control and eradication programs, reagents for diagnostic testing, training, and laboratory certification.
The mission of the National Veterinary Accreditation Program is to provide accredited veterinarians with the information they need to ensure the health of the Nations’ livestock and animal population and to protect the public health and well-being.