Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain F is a lentogenic vaccine strain used for primary vaccination in day-old chickens against Newcastle disease (ND) in India and Southeast Asian countries. Recombinant NDV-F virus and another recombinant NDV harboring the major capsid protein VP2 gene of a very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV); namely rNDV-F and rNDV-F/VP2， respectively， were generated using the NDV F strain. The rNDV-F/VP2 virus was slightly attenuated， as compared to the rNDV-F virus， as evidenced from the mean death time and intracerebral pathogenicity index analysis. This result indicates that rNDV-F/VP2 behaves as a lentogenic virus and it is stable even after 10 serial passages in embryonated chicken eggs. When chickens were vaccinated with the rNDV F/VP2， it induced both humoral and cell mediated immunity， and was able to confer complete protection against very virulent IBDV challenge and 80% protection against virulent NDV challenge. These results suggest that rNDV-F could be an effective and inherently safe vaccine vector. Here， we demonstrate that a bivalent NDV-IBDV vaccine candidate generated by reverse genetics method is safe， efficacious and cost-effective， which will greatly aid the poultry industry in developing countries.