Technical Abstract: The Pi-ta gene provided 14 years of durable resistance to contemporary field population of Magnaporthe oryzae in southern USA rice production areas before being overcome during 2004 in ‘Banks’, a Pi-ta-based cultivar, by race IE-1k of the blast pathogen. Previously detected in production fields in 1994, the rarely recovered race IE-1k appeared to be poorly adapted to local conditions. Although stable molecular variations were defined in field isolates from ‘Banks’, virulence bioassays do not distinguish between isolates from Banks and the type race IE-1k isolate. After 2004, blast epidemics were noted in other ‘Banks’ production fields but have not been observed in other cultivars containing Pi-ta including ‘Drew’, ‘Ahrent’ and ‘Cybonnet’. The Pi-ta allele in ‘Banks’ still confers resistance to all contemporary blast races except IE-1k and was determined to be molecularly identical to the Pi-ta allele in ‘Katy’. ‘Banks’ does not contain the minor blast resistance genes Pi-kh or Pi-ks that are present in ‘Drew’, ‘Ahrent’ and ‘Cybonnet’. An increase in leaf blast severity observed in moisture-stress tests using Pi-ta based cultivars suggests additional resistance genes, such the Pi-kh and Pi-ks, enhance Pi-ta gene efficacy against race IE-1k under field conditions. The data suggest that the Pi-ta gene functions as a partial resistance gene in ‘Katy’, ‘Ahrent’, ‘Cybonnet’, ‘Drew’, ‘Banks’, ‘Tetep’ and ‘Tadukan’ in regard to the broadly virulent blast pathogen races IE-1k and IB-33.